


Dear Superman-guy

by VixxN (KobutoriRisu)



Category: GOT7, K-pop
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Cucumbers, M/M, Markjin, Melmo safe, Slowmance, alternate universe - most of them work for a newspaper, sassy jinyoung
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-19
Updated: 2018-01-31
Packaged: 2018-12-17 12:03:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 22
Words: 27,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11851194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KobutoriRisu/pseuds/VixxN
Summary: Park Jinyoung is fully supportive of the superhero saving people and things, but why does the collateral damage keep messing up his life?





	1. Who's That

**Author's Note:**

> This story started life as a post on the tumblr of @protectmarkjin and I've run with it. Off a cliff possibly.

Like everyone in his office, Jinyoung was glued to the television. Upon it was a short piece of shaky footage that had been captured on a phone at a subway station. It depicted a being that could only be classed as superhuman. He didn't look to be especially tall and he wasn't especially strong looking. In fact he almost looked a little delicate - wiry at best. Despite appearances, however, he was clearly superhuman, because he was flying.

As he shot past – backwards – he was clearly trying to slow down a train. It was working, but there were sparks and the train was wobbling, trying its hardest to derail. The view from the camera moved rapidly to the edge of the platform and looked down the tunnel after the train. There was a loud – very loud – noise as the train finally achieved it's mission, careening into the tunnel walls. The camera caught the tunnel wall cracking and a chunk of the tunnel roof collapsing down before a cloud of dust blew down the tunnel, obliterating all view from the phone's camera and the footage ended.

“What the hell was that?” The editor-in-chief screamed into the shocked silence of the news office. “Who the hell was that? Why don't we know anything about this? Someone go find something out about this... super-hero-guy-person!”

There was a beat, and then frenzied movement. People talking into phones, people running for the elevators.

 

Jinyoung was still watching the television. He couldn't hear it over the noise in the office, but he could see the television news anchor and the graphics being displayed in a small box on the screen.

He winced.

Jaebum, who had been hastily moving past him caught the expression and paused, looking from Jinyoung to the screen and back to Jinyoung. “You okay?”

Jinyoung looked at him and offered a rueful smile. “Yeah. It's nothing. Carry on.”

Jaebum tilted his head to one side as if considering pushing further, but surrounded by the commotion in the office, patted Jinyoung on the shoulder and ran off.

Rather than running around like everyone else, Jinyoung returned to his cubicle. He hadn't been sure what to write in his column. That wasn't such an issue now.

 

~ * ~

 

Dear Superguy. Superdude? Superman.

I feel like that name is taken, but you are super, and a man from what I can tell, and I'm not sure what else to call you. Superman-guy. I'll go with that.

Today you stopped a train that was out of control and could have killed a lot of people. That's great. That's fantastic, in fact. I really appreciate that you saved all those people and I know the people, their families and friends do too. I appreciate that the damage could have been far, far worse if the train had come off the rails and slammed into the subway tunnel at full speed. That a lot more tunnel would have caved in, that the streets above could have needed serious repairs.

But... any chance next time you can do it without any damage to the city infrastructure at all? It's just... that was my subway line, and now I have to drive to work. I really hate driving to work. Traffic makes me twitchy and stabby. Then people at work complain at me because I don't tolerate their shit. I get called savage. I'm not savage. I just don't have so much of the patience with idiots. And I work with a lot of idiots. (Like Yugyeom. You know you are Yugyeom. If you were in a band you'd totally be the drummer.) So superman-guy, you see, driving to work and traffic and me? Not such a good combination.

Anyway. I'm probably being a bit of a bitch here, so let me just reiterate that you're a totally bang up guy, and I'm with your saving lives and stuff. Carry on and all that.

With less damage to the infrastructure.

If possible.

Regards,

Park Jinyoung.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note, the opinions published by Park Jinyoung in his column regarding drummers and idiocy do not reflect the author's. Since her lovely and awesome and fabulous beta reader is a drummer and far from an idiot. Unless Park Jimin is doing something. Like breathing. All bets are off then.


	2. Chapter 2

Dear Superman-guy,

Well. You're proving to be quite the blessing to our fair city. That's the second time in so many weeks you've prevented a major catastrophe. That gas main, that could have caused widespread destruction and chaos if you hadn't been on to it. Big explosions. Things flying through the air that aren't supposed to fly through the air. Fires. People screaming. The sort of thing no one wants.

But, I just have a small protest. Just a little one, and it's barely worth mentioning. It's just... well, the major explosion it seems you prevented, it's not far from where I work. And unfortunately the minor explosion that was – and I totally understand – unavoidable, and you totally managed to make sure everyone in the area was evacuated, so well done you. Of course.

But. The building it took out might have been small. And insignificant in the grand scheme of things. But. That building was my favourite cafe. My very favourite. Where I attain my most satisfying cup of coffee. Attained. I won't be getting coffee there any time soon. And if you knew me, you'd understand why that is such a tragedy. Yugyeom understands why that is such a tragedy. I found him hiding in the supply closet this morning. He said he got lost, but I'm not buying it (or my favourite coffee).

Anyway, keep up the good work with the saving people (I particularly thank you on behalf of my favourite barista, Taekwoon), and preventing major accidents and stuff. Just go easy on infrastructure, and also businesses, if you can.

With great admiration,

Park Jinyoung

 


	3. Chapter 3

 

There was a very loud bang. The sound of something metal hitting something else metal. In any normal office people would have rushed to the windows to see. In an office full of reporters this was even more so. Even from the height they were at they could recognise the super powered man, in front of the building site on the other side of the road, crouching over the heads of a mother and a small child. A steel girder was awkwardly positioned, half in the roadway, half caving in the roof of a small parked car. Standing a short distance away was Jinyoung, staring agape at the scene in front of him.

“Someone get a camera over there!” the chief shouted. “Jaebum, go get an interview with him and someone else grab a video camera and get that Superman-guy on record!”

People rushed for the elevator.

A crowd instantly grew at the scene and Jinyoung found himself part of it. He watched as several people from his office came hurtling out the doors holding audio and video recording devices. The man helped the woman to her feet, and she profusely thanked him, repeatedly bowing with her arms protectively encircling her child. She tried to back away a little as the reporters converged, but she found herself guided away and quietly asked questions, while the crowd circled the superhero.

Jaebum took the lead, speaking to the man while Jackson, who had been the one to grab a video camera, was holding it on the pair. While they weren't a television station, uploading footage to the internet would bring invaluable hits to their site. The man for the most part looked at Jaebum, or into the camera, but occasionally he smiled generally into the watching crowd.

Jaebum asked him to describe what had happened, why he had been there.

A cable had apparently snapped on a crane which was lifting a girder. The superman professed that he had just been passing by coincidentally and seen it falling. While he had deflected it from crushing the young mother and child he only wished he'd had a bit more foresight to catch the girder rather than deflect it, but you didn't always think in the moment.

He looked over to where the girder lay, half on the road, half in the middle of the hapless car and screwed his face up a little remorsefully.

“By the way,” Jaebum asked, drawing the man's attention back, “What should we call you?”

The man shrugged a little ruefully. “I probably should have thought of something to call myself other than my name... and that I'm not willing to divulge. I do have to say I've become kinda fond of Superman-guy.”

As he said that, the man smiled into the crowd and it rippled with a low chuckle. Jinyoung had felt certain he was smiling directly at him, but the reaction of the women to his sides indicated they thought the same thing. The moment passed and the superhero turned his eyes back to where the girder lay, blocking the road. Cars were starting to bank up, and even more people were joining the crowd by the minute.

“I really should fix that,” the superman said apologetically, turning back to Jaebum. Jaebum thanked him, and then he moved over to the girder, effortlessly extracting it from the small car, flying over the construction site fence, placing it back with the others. He reappeared in the air, hesitating as he looked at what was a fairly decent sized crowd by now. Then he gave a wave and flew away.

Jinyoung watched him fly away until he couldn't see him any more, and then turned and walked back to the office. The crowd around him similarly began to disperse and the traffic on the road began to move. Behind him Jinyoung heard Jackson comment, “Good thing no one was hurt, but sucks to be whoever owns that car.”

Jinyoung just sighed.

 

~ * ~

 

Dear Superman-guy,

Today you saved a mother and child from being crushed by a steel girder. That is some excellent work on your behalf. Kudos.

But... and I feel a little tiresome that I always find criticism in your work, so let me make it clear that this comes from a place of love and appreciation. And I TOTALLY get that you just used your instincts, and you were just there being whoever it is you are when you aren't being a hero and totally saving people and stuff, so you kinda batted it away rather than catching it, which I know you could have done since 1. stopping a runaway subway train and 2. you said you should have caught it yourself so we're kinda on the same page. I mean crushed people, not so great.

So: not crushed people. Good. Excellent even. Top marks. Crushed car? Not so good for only one person, so everyone would give you an A+ for your work today except the person who owns that car. That person? That person probably would still give you an A because you know, not crushed people. That really is some excellent work there.

In fact, I can totally confirm that that person will give you an A. A+ for saving people. But you lose just a little in marks for unfortunate destruction of one innocent vehicle. One innocent vehicle that I've only been driving to work because of the loss of my subway line.

You know that story. So yeah. You still get an A.

Yours with utmost appreciation,

Park Jinyoung

p.s. Do you have a local bus time table I can borrow?

p.p.s You have a lovely smile.

 


	4. Arrival

“Jinyoung!” JYP, the editor-in-chief yelled. “Come here!” Sharing a name with his boss had initially caused Jinyoung some consternation, but since everyone just called the senior of the Park Jinyoungs JYP, it was all easy enough, in the end.

Jinyoung was always dubious about being called to JYP's office, but since JYP was always shouting, there was no way to know if Jinyoung was in trouble or not. The one thing he knew he had no choice about, regardless, was responding to the shout.

“Yes, chief?” he asked walking into the office.

JYP waved a hand at the other chair in the office. Jinyoung looked at the man seated there and blinked, just once. He thought it was a very calm response, considering. Turning back to JYP he asked cautiously, “Yes?”

“This is the new guy.”

“New guy,” Jinyoung repeated, still very proud of his calm demeanour.

“Jesus, Jinyoung, aren't you paying attention? Why does it feel like no one is ever paying attention in this place? I said last week we were getting a new guy. To replace Jay on the American desk. This is him, Mark Tuan.”

“Right,” Jinyoung said stealing another glance of the man sitting in JYP's office chair with an innocent expression on his face, and a pair of rather attractive wire rimmed glasses. Jinyoung inclined his head and the man returned the gesture.

“Anyway, Jinyoung, when Jaebum gets back in like an hour he'll be showing Mark here the ropes, but for right now could you show him his desk, the staff room, the toilets, I don't know, whatever. Just get him out of my office. I have shit to do.”

“Sure,” Jinyoung replied, holding a blank expression. “Come on then,” he said to Mark who stood and followed him out the door. Jinyoung studiously didn't look at Mark's face any further as walked to the desk that had previously been Jay's and waved a hand at it. “Desk,” he led Mark past several cubicles and offices, including his own, to the staff room and gestured vaguely around it “Staff room. Coffee,” he said pointing at the jar of instant next to the kettle before shuddering “at least they call it coffee. It's not coffee. It's something, but it's not coffee. So,” he said waving at it again, “not coffee.” He waved down the corridor a bit further. “Bathroom's there on the left.”

He turned and finally looked at Mark who smiled at him. Jinyoung swallowed.

“Hey!” Jackson wandered up and clapped Jinyoung on the shoulder. “This the new guy?”

Jinyoung nodded and Jackson immediately addressed Mark in English. Jinyoung's own English was good and he could completely follow the conversation. He still looked a little confused though. Jackson couldn't see it? JYP hadn't seen it?

He looked around the office. Some of the office girls had noticed Mark and were smiling and giggling to each other. But they couldn't see it either?

Was everyone blind?

"...nyoung?” Jackson said.

“Sorry, what? I wasn't listening,” Jinyoung replied.

“I noticed,” Jackson said dryly. “I said I'll entertain the new guy until Jaebum gets back. Go do whatever you were doing before JYP hollered at you. I'm not busy.”

“Right,” Jinyoung said, returning to his cubicle. He didn't really know or care if Jackson actually had nothing to do, he was just grateful to have a moment to get away from Mark Tuan, his wire rimmed glasses and beautiful smile, and process exactly what was happening.

He sat down and planted his face on his desk.

Idiots. He worked with idiots.

 


	5. Subject:>> Dear Mark Tuan

From:>> Park Jinyoung

To:>> Tuan Mark

Subject:>> Dear Mark Tuan

 

Glasses, really?

Park Jinyoung

 

 

From:>> Tuan Mark

To:>> Park Jinyoung

Subject:>> re: Dear Mark Tuan

 

Do we need to talk?

Mark Tuan

 

 

From:>> Park Jinyoung

To:>> Tuan Mark

Subject:>> re: re: Dear Mark Tuan

 

You're in my workplace. Glasses are not magic. Option 1 – we talk. Option 2 – we don't. But it is probably worth remembering that I'm a journalist. Some might argue I'm not a very good journalist, but that is still what I write when I'm requested for my job title by the taxation office.

Park Jinyoung

 

 

From:>> Tuan Mark

To:>> Park Jinyoung

Subject:>> re: re: re: Dear Mark Tuan

 

I'm opting for option 1. Since there is only not-coffee in this establishment I'd consider taking you out for coffee, but if I've been reading your column correctly, I understand your favourite cafe is out of commission at the moment. Do you have an alternate? Perhaps you would join me for lunch?

Mark Tuan

 

 

From:>> Park Jinyoung

To:>> Tuan Mark

Subject:>> re: re: re: re: Dear Mark Tuan

 

Your negotiations have proven acceptable, although your levity at the loss of my favourite cafe does you no favours. Whilst I procure an alternate source of the precious, precious brown liquid, it is procured with sorrow that it does not come from my favourite barista. Also, it is worth reminding you that I am required, by the loss of my train line _and my car,_ to catch the bus to work, which is considerably slower, and forces me to wake up earlier on less sleep, elevating the importance of said precious brown liquid.

And every day I walk the path from my new coffee procuring establishment to my place of work, there is a risk of developing wet socks should it rain, due to some minor imperfections in the water prevention capacity of my current shoes, and the lengthy delivery time of my much anticipated ones from overseas.

Just some information I feel is pertinent to your edification on my current life status, associated difficulties and risks.

Additionally, you might be unaware that in the past hour or so that you have been in my place of work, my productivity has dropped since I am having trouble procuring photocopies. Most of the staff I can engage for such activity keep standing around giggling about the gorgeous new guy and his sexy glasses.

Park Jinyoung

 

 

From:>> Tuan Mark

To:>> Park Jinyoung

Subject:>> re: re: re: re: re: Dear Mark Tuan

 

I shall offer my apologies in the form of delicious food. You choose the location.

I argue that my glasses might indeed be magical since I have an abundance of people offering to make photocopies for me, and I don't even have anything I'm working on at this juncture. Also I have never been attacked by a tiger whilst wearing them, so they may have tiger repelling properties to boot. It remains to be seen.

In any case, are you free to take lunch now? The editor shouted at Jackson who apparently now has work he needs to do and Jaebum still hasn't come back from wherever he went, so I remain a gentleman of leisure.

Mark Tuan

p.s. I beg for your discretion until after we have a chance to talk.

 

 

From:>> Park Jinyoung

To:>> Tuan Mark

Subject:>> re: re: re: re: re: re: Dear Mark Tuan

 

You like to live dangerously I can see, Mr Tuan. Asking me for a favour immediately after rubbing in your abundance of photocopies. If I come to your desk and find you have wallpapered your cubicle with photocopies having had nothing better to do than give the photocopy staff work of no import, we will have words. Sharp, pointy words.

Park Jinyoung

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh I'm running low on partly pre-written chapters. Send love. Preferably in the form of Jinyoung. Thanks.


	6. I Like You

Jinyoung and Mark found a quiet corner of the cafe Jinyoung had chosen. While it did not contain a barista called Taekwoon, or his favourite Brazil Santos coffee, it did at least have a Brazilian Arabica that satisfied his requirements. Also they had good food, and Jinyoung was hungry.

Jinyoung did one last check that no one was in earshot before speaking quietly. He spoke with his mouth hidden by his coffee cup, because that's what people in espionage thrillers always did in case someone was around who could read lips. “So. You.. have super powers.”

Mark nodded cautiously.

“Okay, I **really** want you to explain that to me at some point, but I have an absolute pressing need to know something first.”

Mark's brows drew together just a little and he looked suspiciously at Jinyoung.

“Honestly, what is with the glasses?”

Mark let out a short bark of surprised laughter. Clearly he hadn't been expecting that as Jinyoung's leading question. “I don't know?” Mark replied sounding as puzzled as Jinyoung felt. “It seemed like a dumb idea, like, of course I'd seen Superman do it – although I guess he also gives himself a dorky hair do and the blue suit and stuff...”

“Gotta admit I'm disappointed you don't wear lycra,” Jinyoung said, eyes flicking over what he could see of Mark on the other side of the table.

“My eyes are up here, Park.” Mark said, sharply pointing at said body part with his fingers, before offering a winsome smile.

“Anyway,” Jinyoung said with an exaggeratedly innocent expression, “Dumb idea, what can go wrong? Please continue.”

“So, yeah, it seemed like a dumb idea, but sometimes dumb ideas are the best, so I gave it a try after the subway incident and.... no one took any notice of me.”

“I doubt that's true. I've seen the office girls giggling,” Jinyoung said, sipping his coffee.

Mark raised an eyebrow. “You know what I mean. Anyway,” he continued. “I figured you couldn't really see my face in that video, so that was probably all it was, but... after that steel girder thing, there were photos everywhere and the video. But STILL no one paid any attention as long as I have these on.” He pushed said glasses up his nose. “And I was like hol' up...”

Jinyoung made a sudden puzzled face, tilting his head to one side and squinting, bringing Mark's words to a halt.

“What?” Mark asked, looking slightly worried.

“Did you...”

“Did I..?” Mark prompted.

“Did you just say _hol' up_ , like you were RapMonster in Boy in Luv?”

Mark laughed again in surprised relief. “And what if I did?”

“I wouldn't do that again if I were you, you're no rapper.”

“Oh come on, in another life I could TOTALLY have been a KPop rapper”

“You're not even Korean.”

“True,” Mark replied cupping his own face with his hands and batting his eyelashes, “but I am pretty.”

“Yes,” Jinyoung agreed, “you are.”

Mark ducked his head a moment, but Jinyoung was sure there was a a slight blush on his cheeks. After a short pause he looked back up at Jinyoung and flashed his beautiful smile.

Jinyoung suspected his own cheeks had developed a blush and he took a drink from his coffee, hoping to hide them just in case. Mark really was cute.

“So,” Jinyoung said after swallowing and also composing himself slightly, “before your short, but ill advised foray into rap, you were explaining the glasses?”

“There isn't really anything more to add.” Mark said. “I don't know why, but no one recognises me. No one but you at least.” He shrugged and started pushing his food around his plate for a bit before looking up at Jinyoung. “Which brings me to the question I have a burning need to have answered.”

“Which is?”

“You're sitting on a pretty big scoop right now,” Mark said chewing his lip a bit. “And for some reason, you're the only person who is on to it.”

Jinyoung nodded and took a mouthful of his food.

“Are you going to tell?” Mark asked calmly.

Jinyoung just returned his gaze and shook his head slowly.

“Why not?” Mark asked in that same calm tone.

Jinyoung swallowed. “Would it make your life more difficult?”

“Immeasurably, I would expect,” Mark replied.

“That's why not,” Jinyoung said. Mark's brows creased a tiny bit, but his shoulders dropped a bit from his ears, as he relaxed a little. He rubbed his eyes briefly. "I'm not complaining. At all, but..."

Jinyoung smiled. “Okay so, hypothetically, what if I, or someone I care about, or heck a total stranger, I don't care. What if someone needed your help and you would have helped them, except you can't ever go anywhere without some idiot trying to follow you. And you feel uncomfortable leaving your own home because you KNOW if your identity gets out some saesang fans are going to be lurking outside your door, following you around, not letting you grow cucumbers in privacy...”

“Cucumbers?”

“Don't interrupt, I'm on a spiel. So you aren't able to help people who need it because people are dumb. And frankly, I'm not sure what you think about me, but I'm not dumb.”

“Gotta admit I have noticed many things about you, but being dumb is not one of them,” Mark said.

“Um.” Jinyoung said, blinking a couple of times. “There you go interrupting a good spiel again and I can't remember what I was saying." He squinted at Mark suspiciously. "Is that one of your powers? Interrupting spiels? What was I saying?"

"You aren't dumb," Mark supplied.

"Right, yes. So, my job? I like to think my job is making people's lives difficult who deserve it. You don't deserve it. All you've ever done – at least what I know about – is help people. You might need a PR manager if you're going to keep breaking things though.” He looked up thoughtfully for a moment, trying to think if there was anything else he had meant to say. Then he looked back. Offered a slight shrug and turned his attention to his meal.

“I don't know about that,” Mark replied softly. “Someone seems to have volunteered to become my PR manager.”

“Tell your PR manager he sucks,” Jinyoung said without looking up from his plate. “He talks about himself too much.”

Mark smiled.

 

 

 

 


	7. Face

“So,” Mark said after taking a few bites of his meal, “that stuff you've written in your column about all the things that keep going wrong to you from when I'm around... you ARE exaggerating, right?”

“Sadly,” Jinyoung replied, “I'm not exaggerating even a little. Subway. Cafe. Car. All real. All my own private tragedies.”

“I thought you were making it up for effect.”

“I wish I was making it up”

Mark paused and regarded Jinyoung a moment. Jinyoung let him take his time, taking a drink from his coffee.

“I'm sorry.”

“You don't have to be. You don't mean to make my life difficult. It just turns out that way.”

“But I am. I really am sorry. While your columns are pretty funny, I thought you were putting yourself in people's shoes and pretending to be cranky, but somehow I've been just messing your life up. You have a totally legitimate reason to be cranky with me.”

Jinyoung waved a hand at him. “I wouldn't worry about it. I'm naturally cantankerous. You've just given me something to gripe about. While yes, certainly, it would be nice if I wasn't going through this stuff, you have provided me with an excellent source of material for my column. It's kinda like being a song writer who writes amazing songs about his broken heart. You write better if you've experienced it yourself. And you are certainly providing me with experiences to use as inspiration.”

“Awww. A broken hearted song writer. Do you need a hug?”

“You stay on your side of the table, Tuan,” Jinyoung said threateningly.

Mark grinned as he took a bite of food. Jinyoung failed to completely control the smile trying to form on his face.

 

*

 

“So, tell me about the people I'm going to be working with,” Mark said.

Jinyoung pondered a moment. “Well the absent Jaebum is your section's leader. He's a great guy, I've known him for years. We interned together and just kinda never left. Short temper though. Best thing I can tell you is that when his jaw sticks out, he's pissed about something, so tread lightly until you work out what it is.”

Mark nodded.

“You've met Jackson,” Jinyoung went on, “he looks after the China desk. He hardly ever stops talking, and doesn't think at all before speaking so you get unfiltered Jackson all day, every day. Once you realise he's not really the idiot he seems sometimes, you discover he's actually pretty smart, and super caring. Also speaks I don't know, like eight languages.” Mark looked slightly startled while Jinyoung counted thoughtfully on his fingers a moment. “Okay no, just six, I think. I mean maybe he speaks Klingon or that clicking language from Africa and it just hasn't come up yet, so I only know about six? I wouldn't rule that out. Anyway,” he took another sip while he considered the other people in the office Mark would be coming across regularly.

“There's BamBam, he looks after South East Asia,” Jinyoung continued.

“Yeah, I heard that name. BamBam. Like the Flintstones?”

“I'm not sure what the Flintstones is,” Jinyoung replied, “He told me his birth name at one point, but it's a bit of a mouthful and even his own family call him BamBam. It's his name.”

“BamBam it is then.”

“Yugyeom is our intern. So far he seems to mostly have learned how to be a pain in the ass. I keep threatening to throw him out a window, but I don't think he takes me seriously. He just laughs and goes and annoys someone else for awhile. One of these days I might actually throw him out a window. I'm not entirely convinced he wasn't dropped on his head as a baby, although if you have any tasks you want done, give them to Yugyeom. Surprisingly, considering he's an idiot, he achieves things.”

“Like photocopying?”

“No one actually photocopies any more. What third world country do you come from?”

“I did wonder.”

“Oh, and there's one other important person you need to know about. When you are no longer a gentleman of leisure, and if you don't have time to duck out for lunch, you can order sandwiches which are brought to us by the Sandwich Creation Artist, Youngjae. There are three important things to know about Youngjae.”

"The first is that he won't put cucumbers in your sandwiches no matter what. He says he has standards and cucumbers don't meet them. I happen to like cucumbers, but I have yet remained unable to change his mind on this one."

"I find that surprising," Mark said, "I would have thought you could talk any one into pretty much anything if you tried."

"He remains unmoved by my pleas. It is my life's failure, I'm sure it'll come up in my obituary," Jinyoung bemoaned. "Anyway, the second thing to know is that Jaebum is ridiculously and kinda hilariously head over heels in love with him. I gotta tell you, there's not much more entertaining in the world than watching Jaebum blushing and at a complete loss for words around the boy he's got a crush on. But don't tell him I told you that.”

"When I finally meet him I'll restrain myself from incorporating it into my greeting."

“I appreciate that. And the last thing to know about Youngjae is that he is literally the sweetest person you will ever meet in your entire life, and walking sunshine. It's hard to be in a bad mood when he's around, so you should also order your lunch from him when you're having a bad day.”

“So what's your excuse for being so cantankerous then?” Mark asked pointedly.

Jinyoung narrowed his eyes at Mark. “My irascibility is carefully cultivated,” he replied.

Mark laughed. “You sure you don't need a hug?”

“Do you have a death wish, Tuan? I can throw you out a window more easily than Yugyeom, you're half his....” Mark was grinning at him. “GODDAMMIT that won't achieve anything will it?”

Mark just wiggled his eyebrows and continued to grin. “You haven't actually told me what your job is yet.”

“Sass,” Jinyoung replied and took a drink from his coffee.

“What?” Mark laughed.

“Serious. I'm paid to be sassy,” Jinyoung said with a level gaze.

“Nope, gonna need a bit more of a job description. So far I know you make people's lives difficult who deserve it, like to bitch at superheroes for being inconvenient pests, and are paid to be sassy.”

“I write op-eds. So in other words, sass. Whenever someone has gotten up the Chief's nose and he thinks they need a verbal lambasting, that's when I get to write my real pieces. People don't really want me writing articles about them most of the time. I'm kinda infamous for being brutal about it and they don't really take it too well. Nor do their supporters. It's not a good week if I haven't gotten a bunch of angry emails and the odd death threat.” Jinyoung shrugged.

“Anyway, when I don't have any real work to do I write my column which is mostly me venting about things that annoy me. Like Yugyeom. Australians and their unintelligible slang. English is hard enough without Australians. Or, you know, having my car bashed in with a steel girder by well meaning, cute superheroes who disappointingly wear neither lycra, nor capes. Parents double parking in the road to let their kids out at their school while I'm behind them TRYING TO GO SOMEWHERE...”

“Wait, back up, did you just call me cute?”

Jinyoung opened his mouth to say something, then paused for just a moment before finally speaking. “I have no idea what you are talking about. Have you met me? I would never say something like that.”

Mark raised an eyebrow.

“Were you actually paying attention to what I was saying or are you relying on your pretty face to get you by in life?”

“I'm quite certain you called me cute, and now you called me pretty.”

“You called yourself pretty, I'm just using your own words, don't think I'm giving you any kind of compliment. That doesn't sound like me at all.”

“Even if I did use it first, your utilisation of the word implies your tacit agreement. And you definitely said I was cute.”

“Would you look at the time!” Jinyoung said looking at his wrist on which he wasn't wearing a watch. “We'd better get back. Jaebum should be back, and you don't want to get yelled at by JYP on your first day for slacking off.”

“I'll take your word for that,” Mark said, heading to the counter to pay for their meals. Jinyoung escaped out the door and let the breeze cool his cheeks.

 


	8. Chapter 8

Mark quickly learned that Jinyoung was someone true to his word, remaining silent about what he knew about Mark's abilities, even in the face of JYP yelling at everyone and anyone to try and find out anything about him. (Youngjae had looked perplexed when he had been asked if he knew anything, and had scurried away post haste after his sandwich deliveries, much to Jaebum's disappointment). Jinyoung found Mark watching him occasionally, a curious look on his face like he was trying to work out the intricate workings of Jinyoung's mind. Jinyoung would just give him the same flat stare he gave to everyone that served as a warning before his tongue got involved, and Mark would flash a quick smile at him and turn back to what he had been doing.

Jinyoung quickly learned that Mark, whilst softly spoken and quiet, had an authority and a reliability about him that had even Yugyeom doting on him in no time at all. He was calm and polite, and no one would have believed the impertinent emails he liked to send Jinyoung. They continued conversations back and forth that truth be told, became Jinyoung's favourite part of his day. There were levels to Mark that only he was really aware of. Even though Mark did generally enjoy teasing people and making them squirm when he could, there were looks of surprise when Jinyoung and Mark engaged in a lingual skirmish. It would have seemed to the casual observer that they came out of no where, but Jinyoung was having fun having someone who enjoyed verbal sparring as much as he did, and Mark never took anything he said to heart.

When, the phone rang on Jaebum's desk a few days later, he answered, and quickly snatched the remote to turn on the television.

The weather had been on the nastier side the past few days, and a ship loaded with shipping containers including perishables had been attempting to make the port at Incheon. Unfortunately it had collided with a smaller vessel. The smaller vessel had gone down, its crew swimming for their lives, the larger vessel struggling as the water overwhelmed the pumps in the bilge. Worst of all it was unbalanced, inexorably tipping as the station that had first heard the news filmed the ship in distress.

Jinyoung looked at Mark's face. He could see in his expression his determination to go help. This was it, the first time he not only became complicit in Mark's secret, but chose to help him keep it. As Jaebum gathered his crew and ran for the helicopter on the roof, Jinyoung gestured Mark to his desk. Mark looked confused but Jinyoung just snapped his laptop closed and led Mark to the stairs.

“I'll cover for you. I'll come up with a story where we've been if anyone asks. Go down, Jaebum will be headed to the roof. I'll be at the library, or I'll message you if I have to come back here.”

Mark nodded, tucking his glasses into his pocket and disappearing down the stairwell.

Unfortunately Jinyoung couldn't stay away in the pleasantly quiet library, JYP demanding his presence so he could assign a piece for him to write. When Mark returned two hours after his departure, Jinyoung waved him over to his desk again and said in a normal voice, “Find it okay?”

“Yeah, no problem,” Mark replied.

“You should have taken an umbrella,” Jinyoung chastised, pulling on a wet curl of Mark's hair. “I did offer.”

“Then you would have gotten soaked coming back,” Mark argued. “I didn't want to inconvenience you.” Then very softly he added, “I think for once I didn't actually inconvenience you.”

Jinyoung looked at him and replied in a similarly soft voice, “We'll see. A butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can cause a tornado in Texas. I'm not making any assumptions about the results of you flapping your wings.”

Mark flashed his smile at Jinyoung and returned to his normal vocal level. “Awww, did you just call me a butterfly? You always say the sweetest things.”

At that very moment Jackson had walked past Jinyoung's desk, close enough to hear Mark's final line. He literally came to a sudden stop, and walked backwards the few steps it took to return to the point where he was alongside Mark and Jinyoung.

“Did...” Mark and Jinyoung turned to him. “Did you just say Jinyoung says sweet things to you?”

Mark paused for a second, holding eye contact with Jinyoung and then a mischievous smirk appeared on his face. Jinyoung tightened his lips a second in a silent message, but was not overly surprised when Mark turned to Jackson, adopting a face of overacted sincerity and nodded. “So far he has called me cute, pretty **and** a butterfly. He's SUCH a sweetheart.” Jinyoung was starting to regret his life choices. Mark was turning out to be a bigger pain in his ass than Yugyeom.

“Okay, no,” Jinyoung started to protest, in a reasonable tone of voice “That is a complete misrepresentation of the situation...”

Jackson ignored him, staring at Mark, and whispered “Who are you, and what kind of super powers do you have?”

Mark looked at Jinyoung again, grinned unrepentantly and turned back to Jackson, “He said nice things about you too.”

Jackson stared at him, widening his eyes to make them look huge and puppy-like. “He did? What did he say?”

“He said you're not really the idiot you seem.”

Jackson turned on Jinyoung who was rolling his eyes at both of them at this point. Jackson launched himself at Jinyoung, wrapping his arms around him like an octopus and rubbed his nose enthusiastically into Jinyoung's cheek. “Jinyoungie! That's the nicest thing you've ever said about me! You ARE a sweetheart.”

“I will stab you BOTH with my sharp pointy pencil,” Jinyoung said flatly, standing unresisting but also non-compliant beneath Jackson's affection.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Jackson soothed in a tone usually reserved for addressing angry hamsters, and kittens demanding to be fed, as he started stroking Jinyoung's head.

Jinyoung stood motionless a moment longer, turning a withering gaze on Mark before throwing Jackson off. Jackson went to wrap his arms around him again, but Jinyoung snatched a truly sharp and pointy pencil off his desk and brandished it in Jackson's direction.

Jackson put both hands up placatingly in front of him before turning his head to grin at Mark. “I'm telling you, you must have super powers if Jinyoung is saying nice things about people. Jinyoung never says nice things about people. It's like a point of pride to be the king of snark.”

“Go away, both of you.” Jinyoung glowered at them. “I have an op-ed to write, and I'll write it about you if you don't get out of my face.”

It wasn't until the next day that Jinyoung received the phone call that made him look in Mark's direction and heave a sigh as he turned to his laptop once again.

 


	9. FISH

Dear Superman- guy,

Hello, once more. There you've gone again, being all heroic, saving a bunch of people. Truly excellent work.

I appreciate that you appear to have been responding to my feedback. I have meant it only in the most constructive of criticisms when I requested less damage to infrastructure and also businesses, and observe this time that your heroics took place out at sea, well away from infrastructure and businesses, so that is excellent. You have the right kind of attitude to go far.

So I shall, of course, once again review your activities and provide some suggestion on how you can improve upon your performance. It would be downright irresponsible of me not to. You are making excellent progress under my guidance.

You saved a dozen people whose vessel had stood no chance upon collision with a large cargo ship. You saved the crew of the cargo ship, who, had you not prevented said ship from capsizing, and removing to safe harbour, might also have found themselves overboard and struggling. You also, as it turns out, saved a considerable number of people who had been kidnapped and were being smuggled within the confines of two of those shipping containers. If that ship and those containers had gone down, they would with absolute certainty have drowned, trapped in the confines of a sinking, metal coffin.

So, yes, excellent work.

Now, while of course no loss of life, along with no destroyed buildings, infrastructure or innocent compact little cars earns you top marks, you did, unfortunately, let two containers plunge into the ocean.

Before you start, yes, I am aware that once everyone was on dry land and ships removed to safety you fished those containers out of the sea with much greater ease and speed than normal recovery efforts would have taken. And also that those containers did not contain people – so that is excellent.

However.

Sadly, one of those containers included a shipment of shoes. And amongst their numbers were my long anticipated Italian leather loafers. Oh, how I have been waiting for these shoes. Custom made and a luxury I allow myself because, as the saying goes 'Good shoes take you good places'. A phrase that appeals to the writer in me, and to my aesthetic. I may not be the richest man in the world, but I like to dress nicely, and that starts with nice shoes.

So these shoes have been travelling to my side with great anticipation (on my behalf, I doubt the shoes particularly care), but before reaching my loving embrace, they ended up in the salty, salty water along with their fellow leather brethren. All of whom are not designed for use in salty water and have been rendered unusable for their intended purpose. That of being practical and beautiful pieces of footwear.

So whilst the artisans who created my beautiful shoes will once again endeavour to create a new piece of art, and once more send them to me (at no further cost, to the appreciation of my not-overly-full wallet), in the meantime I continue to wear my current shoes, which not unlike the struggling cargo ship, have a tendency to take on water. Fortunately that only involves rain water, since I don't use them for activities such as swimming, or rescuing ships, but alas. My shoes.

So in summary: saving of lives, ships, shipping containers and aiding in recovery efforts. Excellent. But there can always be improvement, since two containers made that sorrowful fall into the ocean. I'm not sure what was in the second container. Except that it wasn't people. But the first was laden with precious precious leather goods that should be honourably buried at sea, but which will indubitably meet a more ignominious disposal fate.

I remain, as always, your great admirer, and wish you only the best in your heroic endeavours.

Park Jinyoung.

p.s. I am off to buy some extra socks now so I can keep them at work for if I get wet feet on my commute, so if you wish to contact me to discuss my critique further I'll be out of the office for about a half hour.

 

 

 


	10. Turn Up

Truth be told, Jinyoung had had enough of catching buses. To be fair he had had enough of catching buses before he even caught the first one, but he was even more tired of it now. He lived just far enough away from where he worked that the bus rides were irritatingly long. There were times going home from the office he practically dozed off and more than once he missed his stop and had to backtrack on foot, grumbling to himself about buses and subways and well meaning cute superheroes that had a habit of messing up his life.

 

At least buses were usually quiet. Today he was on a delightfully quiet bus despite it being more than half full. The rumbling of the engine provided soft lulling background noise, only interrupted occasionally by the high pitched voice of a small boy asking his mother questions, and her soft responses.

 

Jinyoung was in the back half of the bus, leaning his head against the window and mostly asleep when he was brought to full awareness by the bus making sudden erratic movements, and accompanying loud alarmed noises from the passengers. He grabbed the seat in front of him hastily as the bus lurched around, tyres making unpleasant noises as the driver wrestled wildly with the steering wheel to regain control. Jinyoung looked out the window and registered that they were currently on the hill section of his journey, and there was a drop at the side of the road as the slope dropped down to the back of Jinyoung's home.

 

The tipping and swerving bus finally came to a halt, precariously close to the edge. The frightened screams of the passengers petered down to smaller frightened noises, although the little boy just kept crying at full volume. The driver of the bus sat heaving breaths in his seat.

 

Suddenly there was squealing of tyres and the bus shook with the impact as a car came around a corner and ran into the side of the bus. The impact pushed the bus a little further, the front wheels disappearing over the edge of the cliff. People screamed again and the little boy continued to wail.

 

As startled and shocked as everyone else, Jinyoung still had presence of mind to realise they had to do something quickly before the bus tipped over the edge.

 

“Everyone,” he spoke loudly over the frightened noises and crying, “slowly. Move to the back of the bus.” People turned to look at him, not really comprehending what he was saying. He repeated himself. “Slowly. Move slowly to the back of the bus. We need the weight back here.”

 

Some of the people understood what he was saying, and there was a slow, careful move towards the back of the bus. The driver looked back, fear in his face. Once the passengers were crowded in the back half of the bus, Jinyoung nodded at the driver, and he cautiously tried to join them.

 

The bus slid slightly, a frightened collective scream sounded again and the driver hastily sat back in his seat, gripping the sides of the chair. Jinyoung didn't think that his movement had caused the bus to slide, but couldn't blame him for his response either.

 

The rear door of the bus was caved in, being where the car had collided, so it didn't look like the door was going to open. That left the back window to be broken open.

 

The bus slid a few inches again. Jinyoung looked at who was in the back seat, to see if anyone had the composure to be trying to make use of the emergency exit there.

 

The bus started to move again, and once more the screaming happened. However, the bus was going backwards. Jinyoung looked out the window, trying to see what was happening as the bus screeched its way back onto land, and chunks of the edge of the cliff dropped away down the slope creating a small landslide.

 

Jinyoung didn't spot the cause of the bus returning to solid land at first. The people in the back seat were exclaiming and looking down at something. Mark. It had to be Mark. As the previously terrified passengers realised that they were safe now, they pulled out their mobiles, capturing Mark for posterity on the cameras.

 

Once secure on land, the bus was spun parallel to both the road and the cliff edge, where it was mostly out of the way of any further collisions.

 

Now Jinyoung could verify that it was Mark, being able to see him through the windows on the other side of the bus. Mark checked the car driver to make sure she wasn't in any immediate danger. Her airbag had deployed successfully and while very shaken, she appeared mostly unhurt. Satisfied she was not in immediate danger, he pulled the car out of the road too.

 

Jinyoung turned his head to look down the edge of the cliff, and it registered just where the landslide had gone. Of course. He closed his eyes, slumping back in his seat, everything feeling a little surreal, and finally taking a moment to let himself absorb just what had happened. He took a moment to breathe and didn't see as Mark flew around the perimeter of the bus, making sure that everyone inside was all right.

 

There was a tapping at the window next to him. Jinyoung opened his eyes and turned to meet Mark's. Mark looked worried, his hand flat on the glass of the window as he peered in at Jinyoung.

 

“Jinyoung?”

 

Jinyoung placed his hand flat on the glass over Mark's and gave a small smile to reassure Mark.

 

“You're okay aren't you?” Mark said, his voice sounding as worried as his face looked.

 

“My cucumbers,” Jinyoung laughed, feeling slightly hysterical.

 

“Cucumbers?” Mark sounded confused.

 

Jinyoung laughed a bit manically for a moment longer and then took a breath and smiled gently at him. “I'm fine.” Mark's expression didn't change. “I'm fine!” Jinyoung insisted.

 

Given no one else had seemed to have any self-posession in the heat of the situation, he turned to the passengers, intending to ask if anyone had called for an ambulance. He found himself the target of numerous phone cameras.

 

After a brief moment of surprise, he glowered at them.

 

“Has someone called an ambulance?” he asked a little tersely. There were a couple of slow nods. The cameras were still trained on him and Mark, still hovering just outside his window. Their hands were still in contact through the glass and Jinyoung pulled his away, and with a final glare at all the people holding cameras, turned back to look at Mark.

 

“Go,“ he mouthed, smiling at Mark. Mark smiled back at him for a moment, then nodded and moved backwards. He hovered a moment in the air over the drop down to Jinyoung's home, and then took off up into the sky.

 

Jinyoung really needed to ask him about that at some point.

 

The passengers were still staring at Jinyoung. Jinyoung heaved an irritated sigh and stood, squeezing past them to activate the undamaged front door, now that it no longer opened into mid air. He got off the bus, moving around to help the car driver who was trying to get out of her car, and talked soothingly to her until a pair of ambulances and a police car arrived. One ambulance took the woman away, who did seem to be all right beyond being in shock, and the paramedics of the other checked the bus driver and passengers.

 

Jinyoung assured them that he was perfectly fine himself. Once he had given his statement to the police, given that he was close enough to home, didn't bother waiting for a replacement bus and just walked the rest of the way home.

 


	11. Chapter 11

The next morning Jinyoung was at his desk, writing his column when he heard the sound that always brought a small amount of dread.

“Jinyoung!” JYP shouted across the office.

Jinyoung sighed and went to find out what was up.

“What the hell is this?” JYP asked loudly as Jinyoung entered his room.

“What the hell is what?” Jinyoung replied dubiously.

JYP gestured at his computer. Jinyoung moved so he could see the screen. JYP's email was open and there was a photo of Mark and Jinyoung in the bus, hands connected through the glass of the window, smiling at each other. Jinyoung winced.

“So the latest Superman-guy incident, with the bus... evidence suggests that you were present for said incident,” JYP said flatly.

Jinyoung nodded. “I gave my account to Jaebum earli...

“Jinyoung,” JYP said over Jinyoung testily, looking first at the picture on the screen and then back at Jinyoung, “are you acquainted with this Superman-guy?”

Jinyoung didn't see the point in denying it. The way he and Mark were looking at each other on the bus was not in the manner of two people who had never previously met. He knew those passengers were going to cause him trouble with those camera phones. “A little bit,” he admitted. “I've talked to him.”

“Jinyoung,” JYP said, “do you know who he is?”

“No, sir,” Jinyoung responded without a moment of hesitation.

JYP looked at him for a long moment. “Jinyoung,” he said, “if, hypothetically, you actually knew who this Superman-guy is, would you tell me or would you pretend to not know?”

Jinyoung paused, watching JYP carefully. “I would pretend to not know, sir.”

JYP rubbed his eyes. “Jinyoung...”

“Sir, hypothetically, if I knew who he was... he does a lot of good. Revealing who he is would make things a lot more difficult for him. No, sir. Even if I knew who he was, that isn't the sort of information I would reveal. Hypothetically,” Jinyoung spoke emphatically.

JYP regarded him for a moment, thinking. Jinyoung resisted the urge to fidget under his gaze.

“You are going to do two things for me, Mr Park,” JYP said eventually. “Firstly, you are going to arrange an interview with him for us, and secondly you are going to be arranging an on camera interview for YGTV.”

Jinyoung went to protest but JYP cut him off.

“I owe Min-Suk a favour. Amongst the plethora of thrilling emails I have so far received today, one was him calling that favour in. He recognised your charming face and drew the same conclusions I did. He wants the Superman-guy in an interview for television. I want the Superman-guy in an interview for the paper. He has a habit of disappearing after his heroics and all we got was those few words out of him when he saved the woman and her kid over the road.”

“And you, you who have met this Superman-guy, you are going to make this happen. In exchange I'm not going to push you to tell me who he is, even if we are in the business of reporting news. I'm also going to let you keep your job because luckily for you you're good at it, and I like you. But don't push your luck.”

“Yes sir,” Jinyoung said resignedly.

 

 

* ~ * ~ *

 

Dear Superman-guy,

It's entirely possible you saved my life. If you did, you saved a lot of people's lives, so I won't take that as meaning I'm in any way special. You turned up when we needed you, and I'm highly appreciative of that.

The bus you saved after it came in conflict with loose rocks on the road following the recent bad weather, I and a number of other people, was on that bus.

Now, it is hard to say whether the bus would have fallen off the edge before we escaped out the back or not. What is certain however, is that the bus would not have remained precariously balanced on the edge indefinitely, so it is good for the resident who lived below, who is probably grateful to not have a bus in their back yard.

Well, actually, since that resident is me, thank you for preventing a bus ending up in my back yard.

But... (and isn't there always a but with me?)

Could you not have lifted the bus to safety instead of pulling it? I mean, who am I to judge your technique, I don't know how much you can lift while defying gravity, so pulling the bus back on to the road might have been far easier for you.

But dragging the bus over the edge destabilised that bit of the hill and while it isn't a bus (again, thank you), I now have a hill on my garden.

 

My cucumbers!

 

My cucumbers were just about ready. My sandwich creation artist, Youngjae, said that cucumbers are evil and I never should have planted them in the first place and that you are clearly an angel. The thing about Youngjae though, is that he lives his life in a state of being totally wrong all the time. Cucumbers are delicious. I was going to pickle those little darlings, and instead of relishing their deliciousness (see what I did there? These are the skills of a professional writer in action) I'm sitting here in my cucumber mourning attire.

My cucumber mourning attire is not something that public should really see, so tomorrow I shall bravely change once more into a more public-acceptable outfit, likely consisting of business pants and a button down, with shoes that have too much wear in the soles, since my new shoes didn't make it into the country so I have to wear them anyway and hope it doesn't rain so I don't get wet socks, make my way to the bus stop, past the subway station I can't use because the line is still out of action, on foot because I don't have a car, catch the bus to work and get off a few blocks early to go to my alternate café because my usual café is out of action, grab my coffee to get me through to lunch, where I shall have Youngjae bring me a cheese sandwich without pickled cucumber because he refuses to put them in and I don't have any to add myself. Alas.

Meanwhile, I remind you once again that you are amazing, fantastic and awesome and you need to keep doing all that life saving stuff. (Especially if I am involved.)

With gratitude,

Park Jinyoung.

 

p.s. If you're ever in the area of a morning, could you consider giving me a lift to work? I imagine the traffic is much nicer in the air and I'd even buy you a coffee in thanks. As long as it doesn't interfere with your heroics and saving of lives. Because honestly, I'm really not that important and saving lives is much more important than my convenience.

But. If you have time. And you're a little bored and don't mind a mouthy reporter in your ear, keep it in mind. Especially because I kept getting odd looks on the bus to work this morning. I'm hoping it's just the cucumber mourning attire, but I suspect since you're involved that I won't be so lucky.

 


	12. Chapter 12

“Your friend,” Jaebum complained over the top of the partition to Jinyoung's cubicle, “was not as forthcoming as one might have hoped.”

 

Jinyoung and Mark, heads together in front of Jinyoung's laptop looked up at him.

 

“What?” Jinyoung asked.

 

“Oh, hey, Mark,” Jaebum greeted before turning back to Jinyoung. “Your friend the Superman-guy. He was super easy to talk to, but he didn't actually tell me anything. This article is a pain in my ass to write. I blame you entirely.”

 

“My job,” Jinyoung replied primly, “was to arrange an interview with him, not force him to share all his secrets.”

 

“Just one secret would have been nice,” Jaebum griped, “I still don't know who he is or where he is from or how he has super powers in the first place or anything even remotely juicy.”

 

Jinyoung shrugged with a smirk, “He's kinda private. Be grateful he agreed to talk to you in the first place.”

 

Jaebum huffed out a breath.

 

“Hey, at least you got to talk to him and hear his first hand accounts of what's been going on!”

 

“Which is simply a repeating story of being in the right place, at the right time.”

 

“Well, if that's what's happening then that's the story. You wouldn't want him inventing things would you?”

 

“I was just hoping to get more out of him. He didn't say a single thing without thinking about it carefully first – except when he talked about you. He likes you, Jinyoung,” Jaebum said. He looked at Mark. “You should watch out, you have competition.”

 

Mark raised an eyebrow.

 

“What?” Jinyoung said.

 

Jaebum just smirked in response.

 

“Hey, what's the party?” Jackson said, head appearing next to Jaebum's over the partition.

 

“No party,” Mark replied, then tipped his head to one side. “Isn't that Youngjae's voice?”

 

“Really?” Jaebum said, head flicking around.

 

Mark grinned.

 

Jaebum checked the clock before turning back to glare at Mark. “You got my hopes up. It's too early. But I'm famished, I'm dying for my sandwiches.”

 

“Ah,” Mark replied nodding sagely.

 

“Right,” Jackson also nodded. “Dying for sandwiches. Speaking of lunch,” he said in English, and slinging an arm around Jaebum's shoulders, “you're cutting Mark's.”

 

“What?” Jaebum said.

 

Jackson winked at Mark.

 

“Go away,” Mark said mildly to Jackson.

 

“What is even going on?” Jinyoung protested. “I feel like I'm out of control of my own cubicle.”

 

Mark patted him on the back.

 

 

* ~ * ~ *

 

 

“So,” the interviewer said, turning to face Mark again. “You're pretty reticent about talking about yourself... predebut.”

 

Mark laughed. “You know I once had a conversation with a friend about how I could have been a rapper in another life. He'd be amused by you calling it my debut.”

 

“You can rap?”

 

“Not even a little bit,” Mark said, still grinning.

 

The interviewer laughed. “Okay then. We won't expect a rap release from Superman-guy any time soon. How about you tell us about your name? Superman-guy.”

 

Mark rubbed the back of his neck. “You know, when Park Jinyoung first used that, I don't think he anticipated it sticking the way it has.”

 

“For those viewers who don't know, that's how his name caught on. There's a journalist called Park Jinyoung who mostly writes op-eds and humorous columns. He first coined the term in one of his columns, because no one knew what to call Superman-guy here, and it ended up sticking. You actually approved of it yourself didn't you?” she said, addressing Mark again.

 

Mark nodded. “I hadn't actually given any thought into what to call myself, and I liked it. When Jinyoung writes his column he gets a little ridiculous and it made me laugh when he called me that. It appealed to me.”

 

“You think the column is ridiculous?”

 

“That isn't what I said. The way he writes his column is a bit ridiculous, but it's a completely intentional part of the humour. The difference between the knife-like precision of his op-eds compared to the stream of thought style when he writes his column. It's quite a contrast.”

 

“Usually people don't like being on the receiving end of attention from Park Jinyoung. How are you finding it?”

 

Mark smiled. “I'm really quite grateful to him. He's helped me a great deal.”

 

“What do you mean he's helped you?”

 

“Well, okay, so when I do what I do, I try not to damage anything, right? I mean it's not like it's intentional. But sometimes I can't help it. I save a subway train, but I can't completely prevent any destruction taking place. The thing is that there are always people who are going to be angry. People who aren't grateful for what I achieved, but focus on the negatives. What Park Jinyoung does is he takes all their wind away. He says what people who want to complain would complain about, but he does it in a humorous way. He highlights what I DID do, what I did achieve. Anyone making complaints about the things he's grumbled in that column about end up looking pretty petty.”

 

“I see what you mean. Do you think the personal connections he makes to the incidents are real? Or is he making it personal for effect?”

 

Mark winced. “Actually, it's all true. I have no idea how he's so unfortunate, but accidental casualties do so far include his subway line, his favourite cafe, his car, his shoes and his cucumbers.”

 

“He seems to have taken the loss of his cucumbers hard.”

 

“I'm not sure what was worse, the cucumbers or the shoes. Well, at least he can buy cucumbers from a store, so I'd go with the shoes. He always dresses with style and that starts with his shoes. You should pay attention to them if you ever meet him, he has such nice ones. Actually, don't pay attention to his shoes, at least not until his new ones arrive.”

 

“Sounds like you've become quite friendly with Park Jinyoung?”

 

Mark paused a moment, face blank. “I... don't know if I'd go that far,” he demurred. “I've met him... I mean after all that I've done to mess up his life, it's only polite to apologise in person.”

 

The interviewer smiled at Mark. It was slightly predatorial. Mark closed his eyes resignedly. “I think you have more than met Mr Park,” she said. “This photo...” she turned to the cameras and addressed the audience. Opening his eyes, Mark could see the picture in question on one of the monitors and it was exactly as he feared, the picture of himself and Jinyoung on the bus. The presenter continued “You've all seen this. It was on the front page of various papers. What the viewers might not know is the man in this picture the Superman-guy is smiling at is the very same Park Jinyoung we have been discussing.” She turned back to Mark. “Looks like you more than have met him. You two definitely look friendly. Look at those smiles you're sharing.”

 

“Well... he HAD just had his life threatened by a bus trying to fall off a cliff and I HAD just prevented that, so it's normal to smile,” Mark said somewhat hastily. “Also he's really cute and it's hard not to smile around him.” Mark clapped a hand over his mouth. “Uh, I didn't mean to say that. He'll kill me if I call him cute on air. Don't tell him I said that.”

 

She laughed and turned to the cameras, “You heard him, no one tell Park Jinyoung that the Superman-guy thinks he's cute.” Mark put both hands in front of his face in a prayer pose and adopted an expression of supplication. “He is cute though,” she agreed as she turned back to look at Mark. “What if he watches the broadcast?”

 

“I'll distract him. I'm sure I have something else of his I can accidentally destroy. His television springs to mind.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It occurs to me 'to cut someone's lunch' is probably Australian, and I once again have an an opportunity to educate on our ridiculous slang.
> 
> To cut someone's lunch can mean to make moves on someone's love interest, but also simply to get in the way while they are trying to make moves... which is the context in which I used it here.


	13. My Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooooo I started a new job recently. And I work until really late and I'm super tired so I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter done. But at least it's a good long one!! Full of plot!!

Jinyoung awoke to the sound of rain. He lay in his bed in a half awake fugue, trying to work out why some part of him was telling him that rain was a bad thing. Jinyoung always took a bit of time to wake up of a morning, so he got out of bed, padded into the kitchen, turned on the kettle, and padded on into the bathroom, still groggily puzzling it over. It was part way through his shower, the hot water running refreshingly over his face, that he finally came to and remembered. Rain. Buses. Traffic. Shoes. Everything.

 

He sighed.

 

Stepping out of the shower, he dried himself off with a towel, wrapped the damp fabric around his waist, and went back into the kitchen. He started his pour-over coffee brewing, and went into the bedroom to start dressing in his work clothes.

 

He knew he'd have to leave earlier, which meant he didn't have time to iron, so he chose non creasing pants and shirt, and slipped them on. Returning to the kitchen he finished making his coffee, but as he went to take a sip there was a knock at his door.

 

Deliberately, and with an accompanying judgemental glare at his door, he took a sip anyway. What ever kind of monster was knocking on his door this early, and unexpectedly, could wait the few seconds it took for him to let the glorious, caffeine-filled liquid cascade down his throat. When he did approach his door, expression flat and ready to give someone a piece of his mind, he first checked through the peep hole and his expression cleared. He opened the door.

 

“Mark? What are you doing here?”

 

“It's raining,” Mark answered, as if that explained everything.

 

“Excellent observation,” Jinyoung replied, “but that doesn't answer my question.”

 

Mark grinned. “I'm here to fulfil your request!”

 

“My req...” it occurred to Jinyoung that they were standing in his doorway. He moved out of the way and indicated for Mark to enter. “Come in,” he said, “and try to explain yourself better, young man.”

 

“ _p.s._ _If you're ever in the area of a morning, could you consider giving me a lift to work?_ ” Mark quoted and then shrugged. “What can I say? It's raining, I'm a little bored, and I don't mind a mouthy reporter... in my ear.” There was a intentional emphasis on the way Mark said 'mouthy reporter' and Jinyoung felt a blush irritatingly rise to his cheeks. As Mark's eyes flicked over Jinyoung, he became acutely aware he hadn't done his hair yet and his bangs were falling in his eyes, his shirt wasn't tucked in neatly, and he was running around in bare feet. He turned away from Mark's gaze under the premise of reacquainting himself with his coffee.

 

”I am disappointed you gave up on your cucumber mourning attire so quickly though,” Mark said as if he wasn't flirting outrageously with Jinyoung at all. “That looks awfully like regular work clothing to me.”

 

Jinyoung collected his coffee, taking another mouthful as he did, and then headed into the bathroom to set about getting his hair into a state in which he was satisfied. “I believe I said my cucumber mourning attire is not appropriate for the public to see.”

He stopped in the door way and turned around with a puzzled look. “Wait, if you're giving me a lift to work, won't we get totally soaked? It's raining pretty hard.”

 

“Well,” Mark replied with a smile, coming closer, “we would if I actually followed your request to the T and we flew, but I figured that would be a bit ostentatious, so I just brought my car.”

 

“You have a car?” Jinyoung asked, turning back around and continuing into the bathroom.

 

“Yeah,” Mark acknowledged, coming up to hover outside the door where he could watch Jinyoung at work on his hair. “It can be useful at times. Sometimes I like to move things from point A to point B and boxes can be cumbersome to fly with. Also it gives me the illusion of being normal, and lets me give people lifts that don't draw unnecessary attention.”

 

“Speaking of,” Jinyoung said, looking over his shoulder to level a flat look at Mark, “I assume you worked out where I live because it was the house with the cliff in the back yard?”

 

“The vigil you have erected to your cucumbers made it pretty obvious, but also I already had your address,” Mark said, one side of his mouth curling up.

 

“I did not make a vigil to my cucumbers,” Jinyoung said with a laugh. Turning back to the mirror he asked, “Are you stalking me?”

 

“Maybe a little,” Mark confessed.

 

“Have you been accessing confidential employee files? How did you have my address?”

 

“I resent that implication. I would never access confidential employee files,” Mark protested. “I asked Yugyeom.”

 

* ~ * ~ *

 

Thanks to Mark, Jinyoung found his commute far more pleasant than normal. It was nice, driving with Mark, even though the traffic was annoyingly slow due to the rain. Jinyoung himself yelled at several of the cars in front of them to get out of the way, since it seemed they needed a refresher on how to drive once there was water falling from the sky, and Mark laughed at him. It made Jinyoung laugh at himself before haranguing Mark on how he was able to remain so calm when there was so many idiots around.

 

Mark even took him via his second favourite cafe to get another coffee before they headed to the office.

 

Mark parked as close to the cafe as he could, but there was a stretch where Jinyoung was going to be uncovered and was going to get wet. Mark argued that coffee wasn't worth it, but Jinyoung declared that the coffee was well worth getting a little damp for. Bravely holding an umbrella aloft he trotted down to the cafe while Mark lurked under the awning of the building near where he was parked and waited.

 

Headed back with his coffee, Jinyoung saw Mark's expression change, looking past Jinyoung down the street. Jinyoung turned to see what Mark was looking at, but before he had any idea what was happening he found himself completely disoriented. There was a loud noise and for some reason he was now on the wet ground.

 

Arms quickly wrapped him up and Mark's concerned voice came from above his head, “Jinyoung? Are you okay?” The voice was accompanied by a vibration down Mark's throat which Jinyoung felt as his head was snugly tucked under Mark's chin and his ear pressed against said throat. The chest he found himself pressed against was warm in contrast to the cold rain falling on him unimpeded since what was left of his umbrella was flattened on the footpath near by.

 

“Jinyoung?” Mark asked again, putting his hands on Jinyoung's upper arms and pushing him away from himself a little so he could look into his face.

 

Jinyoung blinked owlishly and then focused on Mark's face.

 

Mark smiled gently at him, and using two fingers pushed back Jinyoung's bangs which he had so artfully parted earlier, but now had become damp from the rain and were once again falling into his eyes.

 

“I need another coffee,” Jinyoung said a little vacantly.

 

Mark helped him to his feet, urging him out of the rain. The driver of the car that had skidded on the wet road and had almost hit Jinyoung, ran over, agitated and distressed. Both the driver and Mark checked Jinyoung very thoroughly, but apart from being quite damp and a little shocked, there was no evidence of any injury.

 

The driver and his car were also fine, so after a great deal of apologising, buying Jinyoung a replacement coffee and pressing some money into his hands for dry cleaning, the driver departed.

 

Jinyoung was really surprised more than anything. He reassured Mark that he was all right, and they headed on to the office. As they walked in together, Jinyoung was smiling. It was nice coming to work with Mark, and despite almost being accidentally run over, he was having what he considered a rather pleasant morning.

 

His mood dropped again a few hours later. Jinyoung always checked his emails first thing in the morning. Some days there were random ridiculous things from Yugyeom, or a completely unnecessary message from Mark, who just liked to send him things that made him laugh. Often there were fan emails, and people sending him information. Mid morning however, a new message alert flashed up, and when he opened it, it was the kind of message that ruined his happy high. He stared at his screen for some time, not really processing anything. He had become accustomed to receiving messages like these, but this one was a little more distressing than normal. He sighed and made a face at his computer.

 

“Do you want a hug?” Mark's voice came from behind him.

 

“No,” Jinyoung replied without turning around.

 

“Did you even hear what I said?”

 

“What? Yes.”

 

“What did I say then?”

 

“Do you want a hug?” Jinyoung said absently.

 

“If you insist,” Mark said wrapping his arms around him from behind, over Jinyoung's upper arms and trapping them next to his body.

 

There was a pause while Jinyoung registered what was happening, and then he laughed wryly in spite of himself. “You're an idiot,” he said, feeling his mood lift a little again. He was able to get his arm up sufficiently to pat Mark's forearm that was presently encasing his chest, “but you're a sweet idiot. Now go away. I have work to do.”

 

He tried to reach forward, to close the lid of his laptop before Mark saw the screen, but it was already too late. He felt Mark stiffen behind him.

 

“Jinyoung,” Mark said monotone, “what is that?”

 

“Nothing! It's...” Jinyoung tried again to close the lid from Mark's gaze, but it was hopeless. Mark kept his arms away from the laptop without any effort at all. Jinyoung gave a resigned sigh while Mark read. Mark smelled like apples.

 

Once he'd finished reading, Mark turned to Jinyoung with an unhappy expression. “This, this is not nothing.”

 

“I told you before I'm not doing my job if I don't get a bunch of angry emails and the odd death threat...”

 

“I didn't think you were actually serious about the death threats,” Mark said. “How often do you get these?”

 

Jinyoung shrugged a bit unhappily. “Not often usually, but lately I've been writing those pieces on politicians who are either corrupt or incompetent... and I've been getting a few more?”

 

“How many more?” Mark asked in a flat tone.

 

Jinyoung didn't answer. Mark unashamedly started going through his emails. Jinyoung had a folder labelled 'Assholes'. Mark opened it and registered the number of emails before him.

 

“Jinyoung,” Mark said in that same flat tone, releasing Jinyoung's arms. Jinyoung turned a little in his chair to get a better look at Mark's face. He looked angry.

 

“It's part of my job, Mark. They aren't serious, they just get mad at me. No one has tried to do anything.”

 

“That you know of."

 

“Sure, that I know of, but honestly if someone wanted to do something to me it's not like I'm under armed guard or anything. They could have if they'd wanted to.”

 

“Do the police know?”

 

Jinyoung looked away. “Yes.” Mark turned his face to look at him. “Okay, yes they know but I don't send a record of all of them, it's ridiculous.”

 

Mark sighed. “Does JYP know?”

 

“Yes. I always report them to him.”

 

“Why aren't you telling the police?”

 

“They have better things to do than worry about angry emails I receive.”

 

“These aren't just angry emails!” Mark snapped. “These are death threats.”

 

Jinyoung huffed an irritated breath and went to say something to Mark but then stopped. Mark didn't look angry any more. He looked scared.

 

“Hey...” Jinyoung said. Mark heaved a sigh. “Hey! Come on, it's okay.”

 

“It's not okay,” Mark whispered. “What if something happens to you, and I'm not there to stop it?”

 

“It's not your job...” Jinyoung turned completely around in his chair and looped his arms around Mark's neck to pull him in for a hug. “I'll tell them. I'll send the police all of the emails. Okay?”

 

Mark's arms wrapped around him, and Jinyoung found himself being embraced tightly. Jinyoung couldn't help himself from smiling and closing his eyes. It was nice. Mark's apple scent was comforting and he felt like safety. Jinyoung indulged in the warmth for a moment, just breathing, before coming back to himself and relaxing his hold. Mark didn't.

 

“Hey,” Jinyoung said, leaning back a little. Mark continued to hold him snugly in his arms. “Hey,” Jinyoung said again, and reluctantly Mark released him. “It'll be okay,” Jinyoung said with a small smile. “I'll send this email to JYP and the police straight away, okay?”

 

Mark nodded tersely. “Do me a favour, and tell them you were almost run over too. I mean, I'm pretty sure that was an accident... but...”

 

“Mark...”

 

“Please.”

 

“...okay.”

 

 

* ~ * ~ *

 

 

Mark felt uncomfortable. He had made Jinyoung let him read more of his emails. Most of them were lengthy, full of rhetoric and bile. Mark felt a little sick knowing that most days, when Jinyoung left for home with a smile on his face, he had at some point read something so unpleasant. Jinyoung didn't really let them get to him too much, but now he was aware of them, they bothered Mark a lot.

 

Particularly the one that Mark had caught Jinyoung reading.

 

The one that ended with a line that burned across the inside of Mark's eyelids every time he blinked. “I will burn you to the ground.”

 


	14. Firework

 

Mark was usually a pretty chill person. Some people wandered through life in a state of anxiety, but not Mark. He didn't sweat the small stuff, was even tempered and hard to anger. Admittedly if someone made him angry they came to regret it. His temper was ferocious once roused, but it was hard to get him there.

 

Lately, however, Mark felt anxious and was a little testier than normal. He knew exactly who to blame for his current state – Park Jinyoung.

 

At Mark's urging Jinyoung did indeed give the police the full collection of nasty emails he had received, and even mentioned nearly being run over, but once done he just kept living his life as he always had done. Of course if he worried too much about it, he'd be crippled with anxiety and that wasn't any good, but Mark wished he would be just a little bit more worried. Jinyoung mightn't be overly stressed about it, but Mark was.

 

When Mark was called to JYP's office a few days later, his stress levels shot up even further.

 

“Mark, did you bring a car to work today?” JYP asked in the quietest voice Mark had ever heard him speak in. Mark hadn't actually realised JYP had a volume switch.

 

“Yes,” Mark replied, with a sense of foreboding.

 

“Would you go to the hospital and collect Jinyoung?”

 

“Excuse me, what?”

 

“He didn't want me to tell you, but from what I've seen you're looking out for his stubborn ass' well being, even if he doesn't, so I have chosen to ignore his request. He got cornered by some men and … encouraged to ease off with his commentary regarding their boss.”

 

“Is he okay?” Mark asked in alarm.

 

“He will be. He said he is going to be all right and just has some bruising and was going to come in to work. It so happens I'm a friend of the medical director, and it is more accurate to say that underneath the bruising he has a couple of cracked ribs.” Mark's expression darkened. “If you don't mind, I would really like it if you would go collect him,” JYP continued, “and take him home, whether he likes it or not. If he insists on working, he can do it off his sofa for a few days.”

 

“I can do that,” Mark confirmed.

 

* ~ * ~ *

 

 

Mark was anticipating a fight when he got to the hospital, but when Jinyoung saw him with his glower still firmly in place, he released a short sigh and adopted an expression of resignation.

 

“I'm okay Mark. It was just a warning. It's fine,” he said, as Mark came up to him.

 

“They cracked two of your ribs. I don't think it's fine.”

 

“Ahh, but I did significant damage to their egos by means of some very witty and cutting remarks,” Jinyoung said in an attempt at levity. “You should have been there.”

 

“Jinyoung, this isn't a joking matter,” Mark responded, unamused.

 

“I'm serious! They might never recover, but my ribs will.”

 

“Jinyoung...” Mark said quietly. “While I appreciate you're trying to lighten the situation, it isn't working. I'm worried about you. Are you going to keep writing those pieces?”

 

Jinyoung looked at Mark and then nodded slowly. “Of course I am. If I'm getting these kind of reactions, they have something to hide. I have to keep poking the bear, not run away.”

 

“Come stay with me,” Mark said.

 

“I don't need minding,” Jinyoung protested. Mark looked pointedly at Jinyoung's ribcage. “I don't need minding,” Jinyoung repeated firmly.

 

While Mark kind of wanted to wrap Jinyoung up in a comforter, imprison him on a sofa and confiscate his laptop, Jinyoung was strong willed and determined. He did indeed continue to write, casting his barbed words at whoever he felt deserved it. He particularly went after the politician who had sent the men after him, since he was positive the man had something to hide based on his reaction.

 

At work, Mark kept looking at Jinyoung's cubicle and it did nothing for his own concentration that it was empty. Seeing Jinyoung at work had always made Mark smile a little. Jinyoung had an expressive face, when he wasn't aware he was being watched. Normally he schooled himself carefully, constantly conscious of the presence of others and how he was perceived, but when writing he lost himself in the moment. Mark found it adorable. Mark's favourite expression was probably the one when he looked like he was contemplating something particularly complicated, and twisted his mouth to one side, making a dimple appear. Mark wondered if Jinyoung even knew he had dimples.

 

During the day Mark sent Jinyoung ludicrous emails to which Jinyoung replied with a comforting alacrity and made Mark feel just a little bit like he was keeping an eye on him. Come night time, however, Mark rattled around his own home not being able to properly relax.

 

After another piece by Jinyoung was once again published, Mark couldn't help himself. He was trying to go to sleep and he just couldn't. He decided to do a fly by of Jinyoung's house. Maybe find a convenient roof to perch on for a few hours if he wasn't going to be sleeping anyway. He felt a little bit like a stalker, but he just wanted to be sure that Jinyoung was all right. He might even be able to sleep then.

 

Even before he saw Jinyoung's home, he knew he had been right to be worried. There was thick smoke in the air he could smell from a distance, and the wail of sirens as they converged. He hoped that the smoke wasn't coming from Jinyoung's home, but he expected his hopes to prove fruitless.

 

He arrived before the fire trucks. Jinyoung's neighbours were on the street murmuring, watching the building as flames appeared in different locations. Jinyoung wasn't among their number.

 

Mark let himself in through Jinyoung's bedroom wall.

 

The room was thick with smoke. The bed was empty, except for Jinyoung's laptop. He found Jinyoung on the floor near the door, unconscious. Smoke was pouring in from the gap under the door.

 

Fear in his belly, Mark picked Jinyoung up, and having spotted Jinyoung's laptop he grabbed that reflexively as well. He felt a little ridiculous, but assuming Jinyoung was all right, he'd feel lost without it and Mark couldn't put it back down.

 

* ~ * ~ *

 

 

Jinyoung woke up in what was clearly a hospital, disoriented, confused, with a blinding headache and something in his throat.

 

He tried to move but found himself unimaginably weak. Even turning his head was hard, but he managed to achieve it, looking around the room, looking towards his side.

 

There was someone next to him, sleeping in a chair. He could feel a hand holding his own and squeezed it. There was an immediate response.

 

“Jinyoung!” Mark said as he blinked awake and leaned into Jinyoung's field of vision. He looked completely dishevelled, like he had been sleeping beside Jinyoung's bed for hours.

 

Jinyoung went to speak, but he just made a small, weak noise and immediately regretted it.

 

“No, don't talk,” Mark said, reaching over and hitting a call button. “You can't. And you probably have a horrible headache and feel ridiculously weak, so just blink for me, okay? One blink for yes and two for no. I'll explain everything, okay?” He looked into Jinyoung's face in earnest.

 

Jinyoung regarded him for a moment and then blinked once.

 

Mark smiled reassuringly. “Okay. So there was a fire and you were passed out when I found you. You breathed in an awful lot of smoke. So you've got a tube in your throat. Apparently smoke damage could have caused swelling, so sorry, no talking. Okay?”

 

Jinyoung blinked once.

 

“Much more smoke and you'd have probably fallen into a coma, but you didn't and you're awake, so you're going to be okay. But you have to have that thing in your throat for a couple of days to be safe, so get comfortable.”

 

Jinyoung would have rolled his eyes at the thought, but it seemed like too much work. Instead he sighed.

 

“Yeah, I think hospitals are boring, too. You'll cope though. I can always send Yugyeom to keep you company...”

 

Jinyoung looked at Mark levelly and blinked twice at Mark, who offered a little grin in response.

 

“The doctors can explain the rest when they get to you. That's all I could get out of them. The police won't let many people into the room, and the one lady doctor who comes in has the bedside manner of you when you're annoyed by someone. She said since I wasn't family that's all I'm getting. She seems immune to my face. I am unaccustomed to such a lack of cooperation. It is most disconcerting.”

 

Jinyoung raised his eyebrows.

 

“You make a valid point. So... now for the bad stuff. I'm sorry but your place is trashed. I grabbed you, and your laptop – were you working in bed? You could have been watching porn, but what does it say about both of us that I assume you were working. You need to relax sometimes you know. Read a book. Walk a dog. Wait, you didn't have any pets did you? Oh God I didn't leave your dog or something did I? I was just so worried I didn't think about pets. Your laptop was just there but a dog would be much more important to rescue. I should have gone back and checked...”

 

Jinyoung had been blinking repeatedly, but Mark hadn't been paying attention. Jinyoung squeezed Mark's hand. Mark stopped and looked at their hands in surprise. Jinyoung had a suspicion he hadn't known he was holding Jinyoung's hand in the first place.

 

Jinyoung blinked twice at him, and Mark calmed down, smiling at him, and started stroking his thumb over the junction between Jinyoung's thumb and first finger.

 

“Okay, no pets. Got it. So yeah. I saved your laptop. I figured you'd have some kind of conniption if you lost it. You can't have it though,” Mark added, “until you're discharged. I am quite confident you're going make a terrible patient and will want to do work, but I am not enabling you this time. You need to rest and recuperate.”

 

“Quite correct,” said a woman's voice, “and you getting him worked up is not helpful either so go away. He's awake, that was the deal. Go home.” Jinyoung could see a woman that he assumed was the doctor Mark had mentioned.

 

“Just a bit longer?” Mark wheedled. She folded her arms across her chest. “Please?” Mark said, breaking in to a winsome smile.

 

“Do you rely on your pretty face to get you by in life?” she asked testily. Reflexively Jinyoung started to laugh and immediately regretted it. “No. He's awake and you still smell like smoke,” she said to Mark. “He's been here for almost a day now,” she said, addressing Jinyoung. “He refused to leave and its not like security was going to have any success throwing him out.”

 

Mark's eyes were lowered and he shyly raised them up to meet Jinyoung's. Jinyoung squeezed his hand again. Mark looked surprised, like he'd forgotten once again that he was holding it. Jinyoung smiled at him and nodded.

 

“Fine!” Mark said. “I'll go. But I'll come back for visiting hours,” he said to the doctor.

 

“Can't wait. Have a shower.”

 

“See what I mean about her?” Mark said to Jinyoung as he headed towards the door. “Take good care of him, doctor. He's important to me,” and with that he left.

 

“Your boyfriend is a pain in the ass,” the doctor said to Jinyoung, “but he sure is cute.”

 

Jinyoung made a sound to try and protest that Mark wasn't his boyfriend but the doctor looked at him sternly. “Stop that. I'll get you a pad and a pen to write on later. For now no sounds.”

 

Jinyoung nodded weakly.

 

* ~ * ~ *

 


	15. Thank You

Dear Superman-guy,

 

A couple of nights ago my house caught on fire. You saved my life. My place is pretty much wrecked from the fire, but also from the hole you put in the wall.

 

Thank you.

 

Park Jinyoung.

 

p.s. I'm writing this from a borrowed lap top because my work colleagues refuse to bring my own to me. Even Yugyeom refuses to bring it. I am uncomfortable with his teenage rebellion. He's been getting ideas from associating with a new disreputable colleague.

 

Mark, if you're reading this, stop giving the kid ideas.


	16. Skyway

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love this chapter. You have no idea how impatient I have been to post it. ❤

Jinyoung woke up in unfamiliar surroundings. He lay, staring at the unfamiliar ceiling, giving his sleep muddled mind time to sort itself out. Which of course it eventually did and he remembered that he had almost died in a fire, had been in hospital several days, and now he was living somewhere new while his home was made habitable again.

“Honest,” Mark had said, “it's no trouble.”

Jinyoung had demurred, “I can't, it's too much...”

“I already asked you to come stay with me _before_ your house was destroyed. I have a spare room I can easily set up for you, and you already know the only thing I'd want to try and hide!”

Jinyoung had hesitated a moment, and Mark had seen he was weakening.

“I'd welcome the company,” Mark had pressed, capitalising on Jinyoung's weakening stance, “and if you're worried about seeing too much of each other you shouldn't. I'm pretty quiet most of the time.”

Jinyoung had stared at him flatly. Mark, in his experience, wasn't so quiet.

Mark had chuckled. “You do bring the worst out in me. Normally everyone says I'm too quiet and I should do more than chill out at home watching cute YouTube videos of cats. I find that offensive. I also watch cute YouTube videos of dogs.”

Eventually he had worn Jinyoung down with a combination of sensible arguments, ridiculousness and his winsome smile. So here Jinyoung was in a unfamiliar bed, in an unfamiliar room, in an unfamiliar house and somewhere on the other side of the door, he had a housemate.

Throwing off the covers he stumbled out of the bedroom, blearily rubbing his eyes. As they cleared he could see Mark, standing in the kitchen, with a glass of water in one hand, and the other held over his mouth as he unsuccessfully tried to hide a smile.

“What?” Jinyoung asked.

“Nothing.”

“It's something,” Jinyoung replied, trying to stifle a yawn. “You're acting weird. What is it?”

“You...”

“Yes?”

“You're ADORABLE.”

Now Jinyoung just looked at Mark like he was a crazy person, with a small furrow on his forehead. He looked down at himself. Slept in t-shirt and sleep pants he'd borrowed off Mark, and bare feet. He ruffled his hair, puzzled and looked up. “M'm not adorable,” he mumbled.

Mark clapped his hand back over his mouth again as he said, “Oh my god, Jinyoung.”

“I look like I just woke up,” Jinyoung protested. “Which I did.”

“If the office saw you like this,” Mark said, lowering the hand to reveal his smile, “No one would be scared of you, ever again. You are usually so immaculate with your perfect clothes and your perfect shoes and your perfect hair and your perfect you... but right now, you're so rumpled and dishevelled and ... I kinda want to just bundle you up in a blanket and feed you cookies.”

Jinyoung felt his face flushing, “Shut up.” He was aware even as he said it his voice was a little whiny sounding.

Mark walked over to him. “Good come back.”

“It's early. I'm not properly awake yet and I haven't had coffee.”

“Interesting. Your composure and surliness are a package deal,” Mark said, “and apparently make you qualified to participate in social interaction.”

Jinyoung looked at him, trying to formulate some kind of decent retort, but his brain just wasn't on his side yet. “Shut up,” he said again, although he at least managed to keep the whine out of his voice.

“Not even remotely convincing. You're so squishy right now.” Reaching out, Mark started flattening Jinyoung's dishevelled hair back down again.

“I am not squishy,” Jinyoung grumbled, but made no moves to stop Mark's attentions.

“I beg to differ.” Mark grinned at him.

“I'm taking a shower,” Jinyoung said stepping away, “stop grinning at me.” He walked into the bathroom.

“So cute,” Mark said.

Jinyoung shut the door firmly behind himself.

 

 

 

By the time Jinyoung emerged from the bathroom he had enough brain function to be wearing his attitude, in addition to a towel. Mark was either still in the kitchen, or back in the kitchen, and seeing Jinyoung appear, switched on the kettle. He opened his mouth to speak but Jinyoung just snapped a warning finger up, with an accompanying glare and warning noise.

Mark laughed. “Well, good MORNING Jinyoung. Sleep well?”

Jinyoung narrowed one eye at him as he walked across the common area.

“Coffee?” Mark asked. Jinyoung stopped and looked at him. “I'm afraid I only have not-coffee,” Mark continued apologetically, holding out a ubiquitous yellow packet of instant mocha, “but it's caffeinated?”

“Thank you,” Jinyoung said. “Even not-coffee is welcome at this juncture.”

Mark laughed again, “I won't subject you to my not-coffee for much longer.”

Jinyoung didn't reply but he worried Mark had decided a housemate was too much trouble after all. He tried not to let his disappointment register on his face, but it must have.

“What I mean,” Mark clarified softly, “is we'll go get you the supplies so you can make pour over.”

“Ah.”

“You're not getting away from me that quickly. It's nice having someone around. Especially when they're adorably muddled and easily taken advantage of when they first wake up in the morning.”

“You... aren't going to mention that to anyone, are you?”

“Of course not,” Mark said cheerfully. “Your secret is safe with me. You know I appreciate the importance of a good secret identity. Mine is that I am just a normal person when secretly I can lift a bus and defy gravity. Yours is that while you're surly and incredibly witty, you're secretly a fluffy little squish bunny who just wants to be loved.”

“If you're quite done,” Jinyoung said flatly, “I'm wearing a towel.”

“Need me to speak up?”

“What?”

Mark grinned. “Simpson's reference. Sorry.”

“Ah, right. Jaebum would probably have gotten it. He loves the Simpsons. I saw his underwear once and he was wearing Bart Simpson boxers. I've never let him live that one down.”

“Why did you see Jaebum's underwear?” Mark asked.

“That is not the pertinent piece of information to take from that particular anecdote,” Jinyoung replied, folding his arms across his bare chest.

“That is a matter of perspective,” Mark said, “and now I really want you to tell me this story.” He turned around to make Jinyoung a mocha.

“It's not really much of a story,” Jinyoung argued, but told it anyway. “I went into the office early one morning to work on something. Jaebum had been up the night before working on a piece and hadn't realised how late it had gotten. He decided to just sleep on the sofa and took his pants off to get more comfortable. He was not expecting anyone in the office that early and hadn't put them back on to wander up to the bathroom and back.”

“Ahh,” Mark nodded, handing Jinyoung his drink.

“We've all done it at some point or another,” Jinyoung said.

“Walked around the office in your underwear?”

Jinyoung rolled his eyes, “No.”

“Ohh, you mean slept in the office overnight.” Mark grinned at him.

“Now,” Jinyoung said drily, “can I go get dressed? I'm _still_ only wearing a towel.”

“I guess you probably should,” Mark replied.

Jinyoung paused at the doorway to his room.

“Mark?”

“Hmm?”

“I don't have any clothes. Except the things you got for me to come home, to come here in. Do you think you have a shirt I could borrow? The pants will be fine, but... I'm going to have to go shopping...”

“Of course I do!” Mark said. “I like to wear my shirts loose so I'll definitely have one that'll fit. Good plan to wear your own pants though. Pretty sure mine wouldn't go over your... butt.”

Jinyoung raised an eyebrow at him.

Mark wiggled his eyebrows in return as he disappeared into his room to find Jinyoung a shirt to wear.

 

 

In the circumstances JYP didn't even complain when Jinyoung and Mark left work a little early to go find Jinyoung some new clothing.

When they got back to Mark's place and Jinyoung had gone to put away his purchases, he had found another item with them he didn't recognise.

“What is this?” Jinyoung asked, coming out into the living area.

“Hmm?” Mark replied, without looking. Jinyoung didn't say anything further so Mark looked up at him. Jinyoung was holding a black t-shirt with a bow tie at the neckline.

“Oh!” Mark laughed. “A present! I know you like to stay classy even when you're relaxing. Thought that would be pretty much perfect.”

“You are ridiculous, you know that?” Jinyoung said, taking his shirt off and sliding on the t-shirt. “What do you think?” he said striking a pose.

“Adorable,” Mark replied.

“I thought I was meant to be classy,” Jinyoung said, with a faint dusting of pink over his cheeks. “you keep using this word adorable for me. Do you know what adorable even means? Are you sure you have the right word?”

“I am positive I have the right word,” Mark said with sincerity.

Jinyoung broke eye contact, conscious of the colour on his cheeks, and uncertain what to do about the expression on Mark's face. Most of the time he was quite confident Mark was just teasing him, but there were times he didn't think he was and he didn't know what to do with himself.

Looking away, the window caught his eye, and he moved over to it. From this window he could see the hill at the back of his house. He remembered why he was here, why he was wearing new clothing.

“Hey,” Mark's voice came from beside him. Jinyoung hadn't even noticed him approaching. Mark touched him gently on the shoulder. “You're safe here, you know that right? First of all because no one knows where I live so they won't find you, and second of all, I'm a pretty decent bodyguard.”

Jinyoung looked at him solemnly for a moment, and then nodded once with a small grateful smile. Mark looked back at him with that same sincere expression he had a moment ago when he said adorable was the right word for Jinyoung. Jinyoung felt a little jumpy and it had nothing to do with anybody threatening his life.

 

 

“Hey!” Mark said suddenly. “Go put on a jumper!”

“Why? It's not cold.”

“Just do it,” Mark said, pushing him towards his room.

Jinyoung complied, with a raised eyebrow, and cheerfully Mark led him outside.

“Stand on my feet,” Mark said, “it'll make this easier.”

“On your feet?” Jinyoung said, hesitantly complying. “It'll make what easier exactly?”

Mark wrapped his arms around Jinyoung carefully, and slowly they started to rise.

Jinyoung hastily grabbed on to Mark's waist as they rose, and looked down at the ground falling away.

“It's okay,” Mark said. “I promise I won't let you fall.”

Jinyoung looked away from the ground for a moment and stared at Mark with wide eyes before turning his gaze back to the earth, which by now was quite some distance away. Eventually, the preoccupation of defying gravity and clouds whispering past his head dissipated enough for him to make a new realisation.

“Mark?”

“Yes?”

“Were you aware that your hands are on my butt?”

“Yes.”

“Is there a reason your hands are on my butt?”

“Yes.”

“Care to share?”

“Well first, it's at a convenient height for me to hold on to you. Second, it _is_ a decent hand hold so I feel like I have a nice secure grip on you. And third, it turns out that your butt is as nice to hold as it is to look at. It's … kinda soft and squishy, but firm at the same time. I have been wondering.”

“You have been wondering about my butt?”

“Definitely.”

“Why?”

“Are you unaware how attractive it is?”

“Don't you think its a bit.. chubby?”

“That's what MAKES it attractive.”

“Why are we discussing my butt?”

“You started it. I'm just flying here.”

Flying. Jinyoung started, suddenly remembering where they were, and he gripped Mark tighter.

Mark's grip on his butt also tightened as he laughed. “Pay attention to your surroundings, Park Jinyoung! You're the first person I've ever done this for.”

Jinyoung did exactly that. They were literally surrounded by wisps of cloud. Slowly and cautiously Jinyoung released one hand and let it run through the wisps.

“It isn't quite like fog, is it?”

“Nah, fog is heavier, thicker.”

Jinyoung replaced his hand on Mark, and craned his head to look around. There were only fine clouds and they dissipated and formed gently around them. He could see Seoul, spread out beneath them, the lights starting to come on in the streets and houses. Namsan tower looked so small from here, surrounded as it was by the dark green of the park. He could see where the city thinned and the countryside took over, traffic scuttling down the roads to other destinations like lifeblood.

He turned to look back at Mark. Mark was watching him, smiling.

“This is amazing,” Jinyoung said.

“Yeah,” Mark replied softly, with a gentle expression in his eyes as he looked at Jinyoung.

 

 

They watched the city lights coming on from their spectacular vantage point. Jinyoung didn’t even notice how cold he was until there was a sharp breeze that cut through the fluffy weave of his jumper, causing him to shiver.

“Want to go back down?” Mark asked.

“I never want to go back down,” Jinyoung replied.

Mark chuckled. “We can come back any time you want.” Carefully he released one hand and touched it gently to Jinyoung's face. “You're freezing, and we haven't had dinner.”

“We can come back again?” Jinyoung asked plaintively.

“For you, any time. Any time at all, Park Jinyoung.” Mark pulled Jinyoung in closer and Jinyoung found himself snuggling in to Mark's warmth. Slowly they descended back down, and Jinyoung could feel the air warming with their decreasing altitude.

“You don't feel the cold?” Jinyoung asked curiously, his head turned away from Mark as he watched the ground approaching.

“I always wear like a billion layers, not just when I'm flying. I dunno, I think the layers must be insulating, like a bird's feathers because I don't really feel it,” Mark replied. “My ears and hands are always cold up there though,” he continued, as his feet touched down. Jinyoung stepped backwards, off of Mark's feet and back on to solid ground. Mark reached out and took Jinyoung's hand in his own and lead him back inside.

Mark's hand was indeed cold, as was Jinyoung's, but somehow it still felt warm.

 


	17. Never Ever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM GOING TO SEE VIXX TONIGHT AMG!!!!!!!!! My lovely beta reader sat on my sofa (which is called Jackson because reasons) and read it live in my lounge since she flew in from another city last night because WE ARE GOING TO SEE VIXX TONIGHT!!!

Mark looked up from his computer, blinking wearily. He stretched, appreciating the pops as his spine unkinked itself. He had been absorbed in his work and wasn't even sure how long he had been focusing. He checked the time and realised it was well into late afternoon. He hadn't even realised that it was past lunch. His stomach complained at him.

 

He looked over to Jinyoung's cubicle, wondering why he hadn't come and pulled him away by now. It wasn't the first time one or the other had been absorbed by what they were doing, but it had become normal that when it happened, the other one dragged the other to go get food, or sat and made sure they ate the sandwiches they'd ordered off Youngjae.

 

Jinyoung wasn't there.

 

Mark wandered over to the cubicle. The laptop was asleep. It didn't look like Jinyoung had been there for a while.

 

“Bam?” Mark asked the passing Thai boy, “have you seen Jinyoung?”

 

“About this high,” BamBam said holding his hand out a little above his own head height, “Judgey-looking face.”

 

“Not exactly the information I was after,” Mark said, with a judgemental look of his own, “have you seen Jinyoung recently?”

 

“Nope,” BamBam leaned around so he could check behind Mark, “not there,” he said leaning back. “That's odd. Isn't he normally glued to you?” Mark gave him a level look. “Have you checked your messages?” BamBam asked.

 

“Oh.” Mark said, patting his pockets to locate his phone. “Why didn't I think of that?”

 

BamBam shrugged. “That's why they pay me the big bucks. Well,” he said thoughtfully, “okay no, that's why they _should_ pay me the big bucks. No one appreciates my talents.”

 

“Dabbing isn't a talent,” Mark said, having had no success at finding his phone on his person. He realised it was on his desk.

 

“Says you,” BamBam responded, before dabbing at Mark with wiggly fingers and continuing on his journey. Mark shook his head and reunited himself with his phone. There was a message from Jinyoung.

 

<<Needed to talk to a source. You were absorbed in your work. Didn't want to bother you. Eat something, you don't have enough reserves in the first place.>>

 

Mark sighed. Not particularly helpful. He'd been hoping Jinyoung would become a little more concerned about his safety since someone had tried to burn his house down with him in it.

 

His phone rang. It startled him and he almost dropped it. “Hello?”

 

“Mark?” Jinyoung's voice sounded a little shaky.

 

“Jinyoung? Where are you?”

 

“Mark, something doesn't feel right,” Jinyoung was practically whispering. “I'm kind of scared.”

 

“Where are you?”

 

“I... the guy said he had information. I came to the address he gave me, but something feels wrong. I don't know, like I'm being followed or something. It's creepy. I thought it would be okay, I'm in Cheongdam-dong... Mark...”

 

“What's the address? I'm coming to get you.” 

 

Jinyoung started to give the address, but then there was a noise and the phone cut out. Mark stared at the phone in his hand, his eyes wide before running over to Jinyoung's cubicle.

 

There was an email in Jinyoung's inbox containing the address. Mark ran out the door, heading up to the roof rather than down the to the street. Flying was always going to be faster.

 

He quickly found the address, but there was no sign of Jinyoung. It was just a doughnut shop on a street corner. An inconspicuous place to send the reporter to. Nearby was a convenience store, an entertainment company that looked the sort that produced Idols, a shop with bits and pieces... nothing around provided any help.

 

Mark looked again at the entertainment company. Usually he didn't pay idol factories much mind, but surely somewhere like that would have cameras out front?

 

He banged on the locked glass door, drawing attention from inside. With a few words, supported by his recognisable face, he was allowed access to the security office and the footage recorded on the street cameras. He found Jinyoung, on his phone, out the front of the doughnut shop looking unsettled. He started to walk away quickly, turning and walking around the corner, away from the cameras, towards the main road heading through Cheongdam-dong. Mark kept watching, and not long after a florist van appeared and turned right, towards the river.

 

Judging by the timing of what he was viewing, and the conversation he took part in, the phone call cut off not long after Jinyoung walked around the corner. Mark's instincts told him Jinyoung was in that van. Besides, it was all he had to go on.

 

He felt sick. It was worse than when he was flying to Jinyoung's house, afraid that something was wrong. This time he knew something was wrong, and Jinyoung was most definitely in danger. He ground his teeth. It was taking him so long to find him. While he had flown to the area, found the cameras in the entertainment company, and tracked down the van, what had been happening to Jinyoung? The van could have gone any number of places. He didn't really know where to start.

 

He flew down the river, watching the traffic on the bridges, on the roads running along beside the river, at the people on the banks, looking for anything that drew his attention.

 

Even though it was growing dark, in the end it was easy to spot something out of the ordinary.

 

Mark went completely cold as he saw a van smash through the safety barriers on Olympic Bridge and plunge into the river. It was too dark to clearly make out the details on the side of the van, but it had to be the same florist van. There was no way it was a coincidence.

 

Two cars on the bridge collided, the drivers distracted by the van disappearing off the edge, and traffic on the bridge came to a stop. People jumped out of the vehicles at the front, running to the bridge edge and looking down at the ripples left in the wake of the van. A group of men, already watching over the edge backed away as the crowd converged.

 

Mark dove into the river at the point the van had gone in. The waters were dark, but the lights from the bridge provided enough illumination for him to locate the sinking metallic coffin. Mark ripped the door off the van, and found exactly what he feared, a disturbingly limp and still Jinyoung in the back, eyes closed. There were no bubbles coming from his mouth or nose.

 

Mark's heart leaped into his mouth, and as he pulled the limp body of Jinyoung out, the coldness inside him started to burn. Swimming straight up, Jinyoung under one arm, he grabbed the van by its frame and pulled that up too.

 

He broke the surface of the river, water pouring out from the car and returning to its source. He hovered, just a moment, Jinyoung under one arm, doubled over with water releasing from his mouth, the van in the other and a face of unrestrained fury.

 

Mark sought out the men who had been backing away from the hole in the bridge wall. At the sight of him they had started to move faster, running down the side of the bridge.

 

Mark hurled the van at them.

 

They ducked and scattered, the van collecting one on the leg as it flew past them before it smashed into the side of the bridge and obstructed the pedestrian route.

 

There was a weak cough from Jinyoung, and Mark's attention was fully drawn back to him. Mark drew a shuddery breath of his own before scanning the banked up vehicles.

 

Spotting an ambulance he landed in front of it, Jinyoung in his arms and a pleading expression on his face. The paramedics jumped at his sudden appearance, no idea at all about what had been happening further up the bridge in the standstill, but quickly sprang into action seeing the pair wet and Jinyoung unconscious in Mark's arms. 

 

Mark watched them for a moment, frustrated with his inability to do anything to help Jinyoung, before taking off back in to the sky, his fury pulsing out of him in waves.

 

Once again he scanned the stopped traffic, and a cold smile came to his face. Without even landing he picked up a police car and delivered it to the front of the traffic jam. The injured man was still where Mark had left him, but the others had jumped the safety barriers and were fleeing full speed down the now empty road of the bridge, away from the furious super hero and the destruction he had wrought.

 

Mark didn't trust himself to speak to the startled police but pointed at the van, and the hole in the bridge. People collected around them, and witnesses to the scene started to fill the police in. Mark relentlessly collected the fleeing men and presented them to the officers, still in silence. The last man delivered, the police tried to extract information out of him, but he wasn't listening. He realised there was something he could do for Jinyoung. Just like the van and the police car, he could lift the ambulance. Its lights flashing and sirens blaring the ambulance was barely making progress over the bridge. Mark flew it over the stopped traffic, delivering it and its precious cargo directly to the entrance of a hospital emergency department.

 

~ * ~ * ~

 

Jinyoung woke up once again, in what was clearly a hospital. A feeling of terror suffused him and he lay completely still, staring at the ceiling, trying to remember what had happened to him this time.

 

He remembered the demands, the threats. He remembered being terrified. He didn't know at what point he fell unconscious, or what exactly happened to him. He made himself breathe, slow, even breaths. He didn't have a tube in his throat this time, oxygen coming to him from a canula in his nose.

 

He could feel a hand holding his again. His fingers twitched a little around the warmth, and he knew the hand belonged to Mark, even without looking. He also knew without a shadow of a doubt the fact that it was Mark who had saved him from whatever had happened after he had been rendered unconscious.

 

Slowly he turned his head to look at his saviour, who was sleeping in a chair beside him, head bowed. He looked so young, his face smooth and expressionless and his hair falling over his eyes.

 

The feeling of terror inside Jinyoung dissipated at the sight of Mark. His body suffused with warmth, and he felt immeasurably fond. He couldn't help the smile that came to his lips.

 

He squeezed Mark's hand, and of course there was an immediate response. Jinyoung kept smiling as Mark sat up, pushing his bangs out of his eyes locking eyes with Jinyoung.

 

Mark stared at him and Jinyoung widened his smile, but was taken aback when Mark's face crumpled and tears flooded his eyes. He leaned forwards, wrapping Jinyoung up in his arms. Jinyoung paused for a moment, as Mark clutched him, small shakes of his body letting Jinyoung know he was quietly crying.

 

Jinyoung closed his eyes and wrapped his own arms around Mark as firmly as he could manage and held him. “I'm sorry,” Jinyoung whispered.

 

Mark's arms tightened around him. “Never ever do that again. I beg you. I can't. Don't leave me behind again,” Mark's voice was shaking.

 

“I promise,” Jinyoung replied. He stroked the back of Mark's head soothingly and uttered small comforting noises as Mark fell back to silence but continued to shake, his arms almost uncomfortably tight around Jinyoung. Of all incongruous places and times as a hospital, and he still had no idea what had happened to him this time, the fond feeling inside Jinyoung blossomed into something which overwhelmed him, and he didn't really know how to describe it. Content, warm and happy – those words didn't quite do justice to what he felt as he leaned his cheek on Mark's head, stroking him like he would a frightened puppy, and his own terror was forgotten.

 


	18. Hesitate

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry this took so long to post! Houseguest and my new job and, you know, life, totally got in the way of my finding time and brainpower to write. But if it makes a difference I was working on the next stuff at the same time, so while I can already see the fist shaking from my readers who hate my short chapters, I'll be updating pretty soon!
> 
> In other news why do I keep getting BamBam cards in my Got7 CDs? I mean, really. I got Turbulence Jinyoung edition (I may have squealed), but haven't had a single thing with his pretty face since ... not one. NOT ONE. Jackson, Yugyeom and BamBam a-plenty. A few Youngjaes. The odd Mark and Jaebum to soothe my wasted soul. BUT WHERE ARE MY JINYOUNGS? *shakes her fist in his general beautiful direction and cries*

Of course the next day the front page of the city newspapers were dominated by a picture of Mark, face full of rage, with the van in one hand, and Jinyoung under the other arm. Given Jinyoung was doubled over in the photos, his face wasn't easily seen, yet there were enough images taken and the pieces put together for the connection to be made and his identity known.

The articles were a somewhat confused mix of information. A van driving through the wall into the river and the subsequent traffic jam was news enough. The subsequent damage when Mark threw the van into the pedestrian footpath and flew emergency vehicles around was even more so. Yet more evidence of some kind of relationship between the superhero and the journalist, Park Jinyoung, gave it a tabloid intrigue. The photo of Mark and Jinyoung on the bus made a resurgence. Jinyoung's own column revealing Mark saved him from a fire was made newsworthy.There was a fascination about the whole situation. Jinyoung's attempted murder, the bridge chaos and damage, the relationship between the hero and the journalist.

As a result, Jinyoung had a police presence at his hospital room, not just in case someone came to finish the job, but also to keep reporters away. Reporters might not have been allowed to see him, but he still had a lot of visitors. Approved medical staff, the detectives assigned his case, the prosecutor's office, JYP, and of course the constant presence of Mark. 

Yet again Mark remained immovable in front of requests that he leave. Staying by Jinyoung's side as the detectives and prosecutors spoke to him didn't give any new information to him. Jinyoung had already recounted everything to Mark, but hearing it over in that environment, in that context, made his stomach churn. Mark stayed silent as he leaned on the door to Jinyoung's room, away from the conversations, but he was aware of Jinyoung's eyes flicking towards him as he spoke. He figured he was probably allowing too much emotion to show on his face and was being a distraction. He forced his face to go impassive, not reacting to Jinyoung's words.

He half wanted to hang Jinyoung by his toes, and half wanted to once again wrap him up in a comforter on a sofa and feed him cookies. Park Jinyoung caused Mark more consternation than any person ever had before in his life. Holding his impassive face made him feel like he was made of plastic, a stark contrast to his insides roiling like an ocean in a storm.

Mark-the-super-hero only left shortly before Jinyoung's discharge. JYP had contacted Mark-the-reporter on his phone, and thinking Jinyoung would be more comfortable with his presence, arranged for Mark to meet him to escort Jinyoung out. 

Jinyoung was relieved to have both of them present, and gripped the bottom of Mark's jacket, looking somewhat trepidatious at the crowd of people that could be seen outside through the glass of the doors. Even knowing the uproar that had happened while he was unconscious, he still wasn't expecting so many people. There were people in the crowd who were clearly not journalists, even some kids in school uniforms and he wasn't really sure why they were there waiting for him to come out. It was the obvious reporters however who were the most confronting. He felt it rather ironic that as a journalist he was reluctant to face them, but he was unaccustomed to being the target of attention, and it was quite different being on the other side.

As they came out of the glass doors to the hospital, the shouting began, reporters calling for Jinyoung's attention, asking him what had happened, who tried to have him killed and what exactly was his relationship with the super hero? Did he know who the super hero was? Why did he keep being in a position to save him?

It was actually worse than Jinyoung had anticipated. There were so many people calling out to him over the top of each other, asking questions he didn't want to answer, and some he couldn't answer. He tried to curl in on himself, ducking his head down into the collar of his jacket as JYP pushed a path before them. Mark removed Jinyoung's hand from his jacket and took the jacket off, throwing it protectively over Jinyoung's head. He put an arm around Jinyoung's shoulders, pulled him in snugly to his side and lead him through the crowd. Jinyoung's hands crossed in front of his body, one gripping the shirt at Mark's waist, the other holding the hand on his shoulder. He buried his face into Mark's chest and let Mark guide his way.

Conscious of the risk of being followed home, Jinyoung insisted they take him to work. He didn't want the location of Mark's home being revealed to anyone, for his own sake, but more importantly for Mark's. Besides, he did work for a newspaper and of course an exclusive with one of the people involved in the incident was in line with the paper's interests, as well as his own financial security.

Despite being somewhat gruff and impatient at times, JYP did have some consideration, and made sure Jinyoung was kept away from the melange of the office, brought a coffee from his coffee shop of choice (okay, second choice) and seated in a small comfortable interview room. Jaebum had a bit more success getting information out of Jinyoung than he had when he interviewed the super hero. While the prosecutor's office had asked Jinyoung to leave out certain details for the time being, there was still plenty that he could tell, and their newspaper did well with the exclusive regarding Jinyoung's attempted murder and dramatic save.

His interview complete Jinyoung tried to return to his own work. He felt fine, physically and emotionally. It was better to be at work, keeping busy – he'd just go stir crazy at home. 

The trouble was that it was soon apparent that Mark was going stir crazy here.

Whenever Jinyoung looked toward him, Mark was just watching him, silently, with this strange expressionless face. Mark obviously didn't want anyone knowing what he was thinking, but instead of the normal range of human emotions that changed a person's expression throughout the day, Mark's blank face made him look not unlike an android. Everyone was avoiding him, only talking to him if it was absolutely necessary, and from what Jinyoung could tell, Mark wasn't getting anything achieved at all.

Unfortunately for Jinyoung, despite his intentions, he didn't end up getting a lot done either. While everyone was only talking to Mark when absolutely necessary, in contrast they were finding any reason at all to talk to Jinyoung, and while occupying his attention, ask him questions about the super hero. Jinyoung started to feel a little irritated that he had been almost killed, but the interest was focused on Mark. At least it made it easier to not have to talk about the things he wasn't allowed to talk about.

His temper gradually started to fray under the constant attention, and when Jackson started to call him Lois, Jinyoung stood without further word and went into JYP's office. He emerged a few minutes later and took himself, and his android guardian, home.

The ride home was terse. Jinyoung hadn't experienced Mark like this, and didn't know what to say. He kind of suspected that Mark really needed time to digest everything that had been happening to Jinyoung, and he'd talk when he was ready to. Jinyoung just gazed out the window and watched the scenery go by in silence.

Arriving at the apartment, Mark opened the door and went in. Jinyoung followed, closing the door behind himself. He turned back to the interior of the apartment to find Mark standing right in front of him. Mark stepped forward, and reflexively Jinyoung retreated.

His back hit the closed door, and Mark's hand slammed into the wood beside Jinyoung's head.

“Mark...” Jinyoung said his name softly.

Mark's blank expression was gone, but Jinyoung still couldn't read him. Now there were too many expressions playing on his face. Mark looked vulnerable and beautiful and looking into his face Jinyoung's heart rate escalated and it felt like it was going to jump out of his chest. He felt paralysed, that he couldn't breathe, but at the same time he wanted to run away as fast as he could.

He was able to breathe again when Mark turned with a frustrated sigh and retreated to his room, closing his door behind himself.

Jinyoung's head dropped. He stayed, leaning on the door for some time, making himself suck air into his lungs.

He walked up to Mark's door, but paused as he was about to knock. He still didn't know what to say. Mark was far more emotional than Jinyoung had ever thought he would be.

He knocked, and at the noise of acknowledgement from Mark, opened the door and went in. Mark was sitting on the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees. He turned his head and watched Jinyoung enter.

Jinyoung might not know what to say with his words, but he wrapped Mark up in his embrace, pulled him properly onto the bed and just held him until they both fell asleep.


	19. Us

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays. Have a present.

In the morning Jinyoung awoke to find Mark's, in all honesty, rather attractive face only inches away from his own. Mark's dark eyes were watching him and as he saw Jinyoung awaken, Mark softly smiled.

 

Jinyoung blinked a few times, confused, a blush developing on his cheeks. Mark was really, really handsome and it was quite overwhelming waking with that smile as the main thing in his field of vision.

 

Mark just kept watching him, and slowly his smile grew, amused at Jinyoung's confusion. Mark pushed Jinyoung's bangs out of his eyes with two fingers. “You are seriously the most adorably muddled person when you first wake up, aren't you?” Mark chuckled.

 

Jinyoung blinked a few more times. They were sharing a pillow, heads almost touching. In order to move Jinyoung's hair, Mark had taken his arm off Jinyoung's waist. Jinyoung's own arm was draped over Mark, and their legs were tangled together.

 

With a grin, Mark pulled Jinyoung in under his chin and patted his back. “It's okay. You boot up your brain. I'll go get you a coffee.” Mark extricated himself from the tangle of their limbs, and slid out of the bed, still smiling. As he left the room, Jinyoung rolled on to his back, looking around, impatiently waiting for his morning brain to start firing.

 

Which of course it did, and he remembered holding Mark in his arms until they fell asleep. Mark who had been so emotional yesterday he wouldn't speak and Jinyoung lost as to what to say to him.

 

Well, apparently Mark had recovered his powers of speech. Not only that, but he was smiling again too. Jinyoung smiled himself at the memory of that smile, and threw his arm over his eyes.

 

Mark was unfairly cute. Especially when he smiled. Waking up in Mark's bed with him was doing bad things to Jinyoung's heart. He wondered how Mark felt about it.

 

Unfortunately he wasn't able to bask in the memory for as long as he would have liked, as more memory returned. The reason why Mark hadn't been talking, and the frightening situation Jinyoung found himself in at present.

 

He joined Mark in the kitchen, face a little solemn.

 

Mark's smile was soft as he pushed a coffee towards him. “Good morning, Jinyoung.”

 

“I'm so sorry,” Jinyoung said as a reply.

 

Mark shook his head. “I know. I'm sorry too. I haven't slept well in awhile and I got emotional. I mean, I get emotional sometimes anyway, if I'm to be honest, but it was worse because I was tired and worried.”

 

Jinyoung nodded, fiddling with his coffee cup for a moment. “Did you sleep okay last night?” he asked eventually.

 

Mark turned, busying himself at the sink and clearing his throat a little before speaking. “I slept amazingly,” he said, voice soft and deeper than usual. Jinyoung wondered if it was normal to feel your toes curl just from the sound of someone's voice.

 

Jinyoung stared into his coffee and thought about what Mark had just said. He hadn't been sleeping well. Because of Jinyoung. Mark hadn't said that in so many words, but of course it was because of Jinyoung. He wasn't being self important, thinking that. Mark had become agitated after reading Jinyoung's death threats, had saved him from the fire, from the river, slept by his side in the hospital more than once...

 

Jinyoung had always kept his problems hidden from his colleagues, but despite his intentions, Mark was now involved in Jinyoung's mess. Jinyoung was grateful, because without him he would be dead, but it was hard to look into Mark's eyes now. Mark was involved, and Jinyoung had told him he wouldn't go anywhere without him, and the moment he did he almost got himself killed. He wasn't going to make that mistake again. He didn't care if Mark accompanied him to the bathroom. It isn't exactly an unpleasant thing, having Mark around all the time. It wasn't even the superpowers. He just liked having Mark around. With his smile and his voice and his teasing. Jinyoung smiled to himself. He'd always been a bit of a loner. He liked living by himself. He kept his workmates at a bit of an arm's length. Yet somehow, here he was, living with Mark Tuan and he kind of liked the over-protectiveness and having someone who worried about him.

 

Jinyoung didn't realise how long he'd been sitting, thinking, until he went to take a mouthful of his coffee, and his cup was empty. He looked up. Mark was leaning on one hand, elbow on the bench, watching him. Yet another blush adorned Jinyoung's cheeks as he wondered what his expressions had revealed to Mark's scrutiny.

 

Mark smiled, leaning forward to ruffle his hair affectionately. “Come on then, we should get to work. You have important things to do. Publicly complain about me. Write scathing commentary about people who double park out front of schools. Find reasons to threaten Yugyeom. These things won't happen by themselves, and then where would we be? Chaos. That's where we'd be.”

 

Jinyoung raised an eyebrow at him, but pushed himself away from the bench and went to get dressed. “You're an idiot.”

 

“Yeah, but I'm a cute idiot.”

 

Jinyoung couldn't argue with that.

 

 

* ~ * ~ *

 

 

Unfortunately for the politicians trying to silence Jinyoung, the attempt on his life ended up providing the last supply of evidence needed for the prosecutor's office to make their move. Jinyoung's own testimony contained evidence, but so too did the van Mark had pulled out of the water. Even DNA had not been completely destroyed or washed away by the river water. Mark fishing the van out of the river so quickly had managed to maintain integrity. Also not all of the men Mark had captured had been willing to stay closed mouthed in the face of their own incarceration, and had turned on their bosses in the interest of self preservation.

 

The prosecutor's office asked Jinyoung to be a witness in the trial. Mark hated the idea, because of course he did, but he also realised he was being overprotective and the best way to bring the politicians down was a successful prosecution.

 

With their arrest and incarceration there was palpable relief around Jinyoung. He hadn't realised how stressed everyone had become, not just Mark. They may have seemed more interested in Mark after Jinyoung's rescue, but when he considered it, he did tend to throw off affection from his colleagues. They almost certainly wouldn't have been sure what to do with him, but their attention towards him was a sign of their affection.

 

The office saw the arrests as a victory, and had faith that they would be brought to justice. In the circumstances, an excuse to blow of some steam was jumped on, and after work Jinyoung found himself in a karaoke house with most of the colleagues he actually liked (even Yugyeom), Youngjae, who Jackson had wrangled into coming too, and a steady supply of soju.

 

It wasn't his first time at karaoke, or even his first time with Jaebum, but he hadn't been with any of the others and there were things to be learned about them all.

 

BamBam and Mark could not sing. Yugyeom could hold a tune but sounded like a middle schooler. Jinyoung and Jaebum had good voices, and so too did Jackson. The biggest surprise came from Youngjae, who had an unexpectedly lovely voice, much to Jaebum's rapt fascination. Jackson dug an elbow into Jaebum's side. Jaebum gave him a death glare in reply.

 

After a bit of soju had found its way into his belly, Jinyoung was convinced by Mark to join him in a rap duet. Their efforts were received with much hilarity since Mark had been correct when he said he couldn't rap, and Jinyoung was not even a little bit better. Jaebum and Youngjae were inspired to attempt a rap duet too, which was likewise a hilarious disaster. All further rapping attempts were vetoed however, after Jackson made mention that he knew all the words to Ice Ice Baby by the true King of Rap, Vanilla Ice. Quite a lot of soju was poured for Jackson before anyone would even let him near the microphone again. He didn't seem to mind, he found other ways to entertain himself.

 

Those other ways seemed mostly to try and have Jaebum kill him with his brain, but at some point Jackson lost his shirt and Jinyoung was fairly certain it was due to Jackson that Yugyeom looked decidedly squiffy for someone who probably shouldn't have been drinking in the first place. But he wasn't Yugyeom's mom, so he let it go. 

 

Jinyoung just hoped Yugyeom would have a hangover the next day so he could torment him about it.

 


	20. Stop Stop It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's coming on to 1am here on the east coast of Australia, January 1 2018. Happy New Year!

Jinyoung wasn't as pleased to discover that Yugyeom did, in fact, have a hangover the next day as he thought he was going to be. Instead of tormenting him, he found himself fussing over the kid, and assigned him easy tasks that didn't involve any kind of bending and the subsequent rush of blood to the head. More than that, he also gave Yugyeom some of his own supply of pain killers and kept handing him bottles of water, standing watching until he drank the entire thing. Maybe he was Yugyeom's mom after all. He even made him take a nap in the interview room when he started looking an odd colour.

It wasn't just Yugyeom that was off though. None of them were really all that on their game, to be fair. JYP stood in the doorway of his office several times, squinting out over at them all. It was suspicious when he didn't shout, not even once that day. He might be considerate, but he wasn't an idiot. Shortly before they were all due to knock off, JYP suddenly assigned his six slightly impaired employees work that he wanted urgently completed before they could leave that day.

It felt not unlike being given detention.

Staying back was not an irregular occurrence for all of them, but they had all been looking forward to going home. They watched with a bit of jealousy as the rest of the paper's staff cleared out for the day, and it was just the six of them finishing off their tasks, and JYP in his office.

Youngjae came in at the end of his own day having realised that he had somehow left his phone behind when he had made his lunch deliveries. Still his usual bright and cheerful self, and finding them all looking a bit mopey and tired, busied himself making them cups of not-coffee in the staff room and pottered around a little cleaning up. Jinyoung suspected he was waiting for Jaebum. He was growing increasingly suspicious Jaebum's feelings weren't one sided, which, if they weren't, was going to provide far less entertainment from a purely selfish perspective.

When the door to the office opened again, no one really paid immediate attention, but that quickly changed as several intimidating men assertively entered.

With a feeling of alarm, Jinyoung immediately pressed himself up against the wall of his cubicle, where he couldn't be seen from the door.

Jaebum stood up at his desk, and approached the men, stopping a comfortable distance away. “Who are you?”

“Park Jinyoung,” one of the men said loudly, rather than answering. “I know you're still here. Come out.”

JYP appeared cautiously in the door to his office. “Me?”

“Who the hell are you?” the man answered.

“Never mind,” JYP replied, “what do you want with Jinyoung?”

Hidden in his cubicle, Jinyoung's heart was beating fast.

The man smiled flatly. “Just give us Park Jinyoung. We want to have... a conversation with him. On behalf of our boss who is... inconvenienced at the present.”

No one knew where the superhero came from. One moment he wasn't there, and then he was, standing behind the men, blocking the door, arms folded and an expression of irritation more than anger on his face.

“Holy...” Jackson uttered, taking a step back.

“Whoa,” BamBam said, fishing his phone out of his pocket and turning the camera on to record.

“Nice try,” the talkative man said. “I'm not falling for that. The elevator is out of action, the door to the staircase is guarded. There's no one there.”

“How do you explain me then?” Mark asked calmly.

The man jumped and all the men turned to look at him.

“Shit,” one of the men muttered.

“The definition of insanity,” Mark said softly, “is repeating a behaviour expecting a different outcome. There isn't going to be a different outcome when it comes to trying to hurt Jinyoung. Ever.”

“How the hell are you here? How could you possibly have known to come here?” the thug said angrily.

“I'm special,” Mark replied flatly, “and Jinyoung is special to me. I'm not about to let anything happen to him. Now, do I have to actually hurt you, or are you going to stay quiet until the police get here?”

There was momentary chaos as the leader broke away, running through the office trying to locate Jinyoung. The rest of the men tried to swarm Mark in desperation. He neutralised them with minimal effort. BamBam and Yugyeom pressed themselves against a wall, Jackson and Jaebum were trying to help Mark – not that he needed it. Youngjae was still frozen where he was standing in an aisle between cubicles. Failing to find Jinyoung, the leader grabbed Youngjae and turned to face Mark, now he had dispatched all of the henchmen. 

“No,” Mark said, shaking his head at the man and wagging a finger disapprovingly.

“No,” Jaebum echoed, smashing a laptop over the man's head from behind. The man fell to the ground, and Youngjae turned to look at Jaebum, blinking in confusion and surprise. Jaebum smiled at him and shrugged. Youngjae's expression transformed into an enormous smile and he stepped over the prone man to give him a grateful hug. Jaebum's smile became decidedly soft and goofy.

Mark opened the door and beckoned. A man who had been guarding the stairwell came in, clear trepidation on his face. He looked far more nervous after he looked around at all the unconscious bodies on the floor. 

Mark gave him a pleasant smile. “You have a job,” he said to the man. “It is a very easy job. Go back to whatever nest of nasty you hail from, and tell them Park Jinyoung is protected. Always. If anyone thinks they can get to him ever again, think again. I am always, ALWAYS going to be here, making sure he is safe. Do you understand?”

The man nodded.

Mark's smile dropped, and he pinned the man to the spot with burning eyes. “If anyone DOES try,” he continued, “I will not be delivering them to the police. I will not be delivering them to a hospital. I will drop them in the middle of North Korea. Good luck to them ever getting out again. Understand?” 

The man nodded again.

“Go,” Mark said dismissively, turning away. The man did, scurrying out the door as fast as he could.

“I'll call the police,” JYP said calmly, disappearing back into his office.

Inside his cubicle Jinyoung collapsed with relief onto the floor, his breathing and heartbeat evening out.

 

At first everyone else continued to stand where they were, staring at Mark, but then regained their composure and gathered around him, confused as to why he was here, but grateful that he was, asking him questions. Mark didn't reply, as they followed him around as he collected the men into the interview room.

His breath back in his chest and his heart rate at a sensible speed, Jinyoung stood, his eyes seeking Mark. Surrounded as he was by the others, Jinyoung couldn't see him clearly, but he couldn't fail to see Mark's eyes that were seeking him out too, fathomless and beautiful.

The questions from the others continued. Jaebum in particular pressing for a response. Mark continued his silence, and with a tiny smile, started to move towards his desk. Jinyoung's eyes flicked over to it, spotting his glasses on it, abandoned from when Mark had sprung into action.

Jinyoung's eyes returned to Mark's. He could see resolve in them. “No...” Jinyoung called out, “...don't.”

Finally the others fell silent at the sound of Jinyoung's voice. They looked between Jinyoung and Mark, and stopped following, watching the two of them.

Mark stopped before his desk, and looked back at Jinyoung with a soft expression. “It's the best way to get people to leave you alone. No one will try anything like this again if they realise I am always going to be there beside you.”

“But...” Jinyoung protested softly, “you gave them that message...” he made his way slowly across the room.

Mark shook his head ruefully. “Will they listen? I don't want to take the chance.“

“But...” Jinyoung said, feeling helpless, “...what about you?”

“There's only one thing I really care about, Jinyoung,” Mark said, completely focused on him as he approached. As Jinyoung stopped before him, Mark looked at him searchingly. “You have to know that.”

A soft expression of his own graced Jinyoung's face as he looked back into those beautiful eyes. He smiled self-deprecatingly. How could he have taken so long to realise just how much Mark meant to him and just how much he meant to Mark? He could see undisguised love shining out of Mark's eyes. He meant it, Jinyoung's safety was far more important to him than his secret.

Jinyoung didn't answer Mark. Instead he looped his arms around his neck, leaned in and kissed him. He felt a small surprised suck of air, followed by arms sliding around his waist, holding him firmly as Mark returned the kiss without hesitation.

Everything was perfect. Jinyoung didn't know exactly when he'd fallen in love with Mark Tuan, only that he had. Holding him in his arms, Mark's soft lips beneath his own, he felt like he was flying in the clouds with him again, only this was _better_.

Both of them had forgotten the others, so completely focused on the other. They entirely surrendered to the moment, hands sliding over warm body, into soft hair, tongues and lips exploring.

Oblivious at least until Yugyeom's voice penetrated the silence. “Wait! I don't know if I approve of this! What about Mark-hyung?” There was a decided whine to his voice. “Wait, where IS Mark-hyung?”

Mark and Jinyoung stopped kissing as they started to laugh. The laughter of the other made them laugh even more until they both had tears in their eyes. The five others murmured among themselves, no idea what was so funny.

Without breaking eye contact, Mark picked up the glasses on his desk. Jinyoung tilted his head questioningly, silently asking Mark if he was certain about what he was about to do.

Mark slid them on, smiling his answer.

There was a shocked silence, which was once again punctured by Yugyeom's voice. “Well, that's all right then. Carry on.”

Mark replaced his hand on Jinyoung's hip, pulled him in snugly, and reunited their lips.

 

JYP emerged back out of his office, looking over at his kissing employees and the others watching with dumbfounded expressions. 

“It's about time,” JYP said, looking at Jinyoung and Mark. “Hey, you four!” he turned his attention to the others.

Jaebum, Jackson, BamBam and Yugyeom looked at him.

“You still haven't finished your work. I'd like to go home sometime, and we still have to deal with the police. Get back to it.”

The four slowly moved away from Jinyoung and Mark, casting looks at them, with various expressions on their faces.

“Jinyoung, Mark...” JYP said, “You've got five minutes.”

Jinyoung gave him a thumbs up and just kept kissing Mark. 

“Where the hell did that Superman-guy go this time?”

Jaebum opened his mouth to reply and then with a quick glance at Jackson, BamBam, Yugyeom and Youngjae closed it again and shrugged.


	21. Stay

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out I'm not quite finished with this chapter, so you get something more from me after this one after all. Just an epilogue but a little more.

Seven people didn't fit comfortably on the seating at Mark's apartment, but with some pillows on the floor they were comfortable enough. It did help that Jinyoung and Mark were basically only taking up one spot on the sofa, leaning into each other's space, holding hands and caressing each other's fingers with contented expressions on their faces.

Jaebum watched them for a while as once again they went off into their own little world, glancing at each other coquettishly and giving little smiles before deciding he really needed to interrupt them.

“So,” Jaebum said, “you're the superhero.”

Mark gave Jinyoung a gentle shoulder bump before turning his attention to Jaebum. “Yes.”

Jaebum nodded. “And you knew,” he said, addressing Jinyoung.

“Yes,” Jinyoung replied.

“How long?” Jaebum asked. “Did you know? How long?”

“From the moment I saw him in JYP's office,” Jinyoung answered.

“You told him?” Jaebum asked Mark.

“No,” Mark shook his head, “he recognised me.”

“How?” Jaebum asked Jinyoung.

Jinyoung shrugged. “Does he still look like two different people to you?”

“He looks like Mark-hyung without his glasses,” Yugyeom answered.

Jaebum nodded in agreement with Yugyeom. “No, he looks like Mark now, wearing the glasses or not.”

“He always looked like Mark to me,” Jinyoung explained. “I took one look at him and saw the superhero. I was baffled that no one else could see it.”

“Destiny,” Mark said, squeezing Jinyoung's hand.

“You're a sap,” BamBam accused.

Mark laughed. “When it comes to Jinyoung, I guess I am.”

“Ewww,” BamBam stuck out his tongue like he was going to be sick. Jackson hit him.

Jaebum was looking thoughtful. “He always looked the same to you.”

Jinyoung nodded emphatically. “I couldn't understand why no one else could see it. I still don't.”

Mark grinned. “I'm more confused why it even worked on anyone in the first place.”

“Suspension of disbelief?” Youngjae offered. “People want to believe in something.”

“I thought of that,” Jinyoung replied, “but then surely there would still be other people who could see him? Especially in an office of journalists. But anyone who comes across Mark in his secret identity – his neighbours, the people at the local convenience store, all of you... surely if it was just a mass wish to believe in something, someone would have recognised him.”

“Maybe it's your superpower,” Youngjae said.

“I'm still going with destiny,” Mark replied, “the other half of my heart would be able to recognise me no matter what.”

Jackson pre-emptively hit BamBam.

 

* ~ * ~ *

 

As soon as the door closed behind the others, Jinyoung slid himself onto Mark's lap, knees straddling his hips and hands on either side of his head. His eyes were dark and Mark's breath caught at the expression on his face.

“Well,” Mark cleared his throat, voice coming out a little strained, “you don't hesitate once you make up your mind about what you want, do you?” He rested his hands on Jinyoung's hips.

“I thought they were never going to leave,” Jinyoung said, lowering his head and pressing his lips against Mark's.

Mark tilted his head in response, sliding his arms around Jinyoung's body, holding him firmly. The feeling of Jinyoung's lips against his sent a thrill through him, but he had known for so long how much Jinyoung meant to him, and frankly this was insufficient contact. Due to Jinyoung's height, he couldn't kiss him and at the same time press their bodies snugly together, which is what Mark wanted. The feel of Jinyoung's body against his, while he claimed the mouth that had been sassing him for months.

Effortlessly Mark changed their positions, and Jinyoung found himself on his back on the sofa, looking up into Mark's face and it was he whose breath was caught now. Mark positioned himself between Jinyoung's legs, bringing their bodies together. Jinyoung was firm and warm, compliant and Mark's. Mark took a moment to look into his eyes, brushing his hair off his forehead, letting himself flood with the contentment that this beautiful, smart, sassy man was his. A slow smile spread across Jinyoung's face as he looked back into Mark's eyes.

Mark smiled in return before closing his eyes and lowering his head to kiss those beautiful lips again. Jinyoung's arms tightened smoothly across his shoulders, and they didn't move from the sofa for quite some time.

When they did eventually move from the sofa, Jinyoung reluctantly peeling himself away from Mark to make his way to bed, Mark reached out, taking his hand and stopping him.

Jinyoung turned and raised his eyebrows.

“Jinyoung-ah...” Mark said, standing, with a soft expression on his face. He didn't finish the sentence, just gently led Jinyoung to his own room. Jinyoung smiled, feeling slightly ridiculous at the pink on his cheeks and the giddy feeling in his stomach.

 

* ~ * ~ *

 

In the morning when Jinyoung opened his eyes, once again Mark's dark eyes were watching him. Mark smiled, a smile so soft and content that Jinyoung felt his stomach flip. He blinked, dazzled by the smile, the emotion on Mark's face.

The love he saw in Mark's eyes.

He sucked in a slightly shuddery breath, overwhelmed, and gazed back at Mark.

Mark just kept watching him, making no move, making no comment, just watching Jinyoung with unashamed adoration.

And Jinyoung remembered, his own emotions welling up inside him. He smiled, slowly, contentedly.

Mark reached out to push Jinyoung's bangs out of his eyes with two fingers. Jinyoung's smile grew. He kinda loved it when Mark did that.

“Don't ever go back home,” Mark said quietly. “Even when your place is repaired.” He rested his hand on Jinyoung's cheek and ran his thumb along his cheekbone. “Stay with me forever.”

Jinyoung's smile softened and his heart skipped a beat at the earnest expression on Mark's face.

“I don't want you in your bed,” Mark continued softly after a short pause, “and I don't want you in my guest bed.” He looked imploringly into Jinyoung's eyes. “I want you in MY bed, every night. I won't ever have to worry about where you'll be because I'll know exactly where you are – in my arms.”

Jinyoung's smile grew but he didn't speak. He could tell Mark wasn't quite done, so he stayed silent, and slid his hand over Mark's chest to rest above his heart.

“How many days,” Mark said after a swallow, “will I get to watch you wake up, all sleepy and dopey and confused when you see me there and can't quite work out why, and then you'll realise it's because I'm in love with you, and I'll get to see it in your eyes as you fall in love with me all over again.” Mark's cheeks were turning an attractive shade of pink. “Stay with me forever?” he repeated, this time phrasing it as a question.

“God, yes,” Jinyoung replied, closing the gap between them and sealing his promise with a kiss.

After a few minutes Jinyoung pulled away again. “Mark?” he asked, eyes downcast, and looking at Mark's adam's apple. He moved his fingers gently across Mark's chest. “You... when did you realise you love me?” he raised his eyes shyly to meet Mark's.

Mark smiled at him. “I realised it the day I read your death threats, but in retrospect I fell for you the very first day we met.”

“The first day?”

Mark nodded. “Yeah. I was a bit confused about the way you behaved when you showed me around the office, but after our email exchange... I probably should have been far more nervous, but I wasn't. I was just amused. And at lunch, God, Jinyoung... you're adorable.”

“There you go with the adorable again,” Jinyoung huffed.

“But you are, and I fell for you like a tonne of bricks.”

“But that was so long ago. Why did you take so long to tell me? Why didn't you do anything about it?”

Mark smiled ruefully. “There was way too much going on in your life. I didn't want to complicate it. I thought if I just showed you how much I loved you every day you'd make your mind up all by yourself, without pressure.”

“But I took forever.”

Mark chuckled. “You took exactly the amount of time you needed. The amount of time to deal with the frightening things in your life, and fall head over heels in love with me without even having time to be scared about what you were feeling for me.”

Jinyoung laughed. “How did you know that I would have been scared if I'd thought about what I felt for you?”

Mark grinned at him. “For someone so clueless about his physical safety, you're defensive about your emotional safety. You adore Yugyeom but all you do is bully him – unless he isn't well and then you mother him. I'd hate to see what you'd do if anyone else tried to bully him. You let Jackson give you just enough hugs to feel that you're not alone, but not enough to reveal just how soft you are. You're a porcupine, Jinyoung, but you were too distracted to be wary of me.”

Jinyoung pinched Mark's flank. Mark flinched and laughed at him.

“I do love you, Mark,” Jinyoung said quietly after a moment.

“Yeah, you do,” Mark grinned, then pulled him in snugly and resumed kissing him.

 


	22. You Are

**Summary for the Chapter:**

>  Epilogue 

 

Dear Park Jinyoung,

I have been in a position to do some important things. Stopped a runaway subway train, saved the crew of a sinking freighter, prevented a major gas explosion, amongst others. And while I am very sorry to have caused such a disruption to your life as I achieved these things, I'm also not sorry. The fact that our lives inexplicably intersected means that I met you. It means I met you, and that means I was in a position to save you (four times, but who's counting?)

The reason why that means so much to me is really very simple.

You are my hero.

Everyone calls me a hero, but am I really? A hero is someone who performs courageous acts, has nobility of character, but I'm just a guy with abilities and I use them to help people when they need helping.

It seems so long ago that you gave me the name that every one has become accustomed to. Superman-guy. You named me after someone who fights for truth and justice, but the person who fights for truth and justice is you. I just save people when I can.

I don't mean to belittle saving lives, because it is important. I know there are a lot of grateful people out there – those that I have saved, their families and friends, your favourite barista, Taekwoon; but what I want you, and everyone else to realise, is that I'm not so amazing, fantastic and awesome as you say I am. You are.

You say the things people are afraid to say. You say them at risk to yourself. You say them despite being on the receiving end of anger, vitriol and fear. You say them because they need saying and that is more important to you than your own peace of mind.

Turns out the things you say because they need saying aren't so great for my peace of my mind, because people tried to silence you. And I won't allow that.

I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you. I was prepared to make a dramatic move so it was clear to anyone who means you harm that you can't ever be touched, but wise people we both know have convinced me that there are other ways to achieve that end.

So here I am writing an open letter to you. A letter that will be published for not just you to see, but everyone. So my words reach those who would ever intend you harm. To stop them before they even try. To provide clarity of my mission.

You never needed me before I appeared, and for a long time all I did was mess up your life. Then things got scary for you for a while, and as each attempt to hurt you was made, my response time improved. My response time improved until I was there before the malefactors even got near you.

And that is not going to change.

I take pride in that response time. I don't intend to drop my standards, particularly because you didn't drop yours, even when people suggested you back down.

Because of you some very bad people are going to prison for a very long time.

While I intend to continue saving lives, (even if I do inconvenience you in my doing so, sorry in advance), more importantly I am making it my personal mission to keep you safe. Anyone trying to oppose my mission is not going to have a good time. Perhaps I should have been called the Incredible Hulk-guy, because anyone trying to get through me to you is going to make me angry, and they won't like me when I'm angry.

Park Jinyoung, you say the words others are afraid to. You say them without a secret identity, with nothing to hide behind, just you and your words bringing justice to those who fear it. You are my hero.

Yours with admiration and respect,

Superman-guy.

p.s. You are really cute.

**Author's Note:**

> There we have it. We have reached the end. Thank you for all the readers who left kudos and comments and love as I released each chapter, you made it a joy. 
> 
> A special thank you to Ji_min_ie_pabo for being the most wonderful, supportive and excited beta reader. <3


End file.
